IGS Young Members Committee Welcomes New Chair

In 2021 Viviana Mangraviti shared her experiences as a young engineer. Three years on she has become chair of the IGS Young Members Committee (YMC) and has plenty of plans for the group over her two-year term.

Viviana joined the YMC four years ago after an invite by previous chair Laura Carbone. During that time she's attended committee meetings and also helped organize elements of the 12th International Conference on Geosynthetics in Rome in 2023.

"Taking on this new role has been a natural continuation of the path I have been on for the past four years, where I have collaborated with the committee leadership on various activities and also served as vice-chair for one year," said Viviana.

"I feel grateful to the YMC members I have worked with over the years, especially Dawie Marx, the last chair, who encouraged me to apply for this position. I welcome the new role with enthusiasm; the IGS is an association that is very attentive to the needs of its young members and I'm looking forward to furthering that."

Viviana acknowledged the role was very important as the YMC offered young engineers involved in geosynthetics the opportunity to feel part of a community. She says continuing to take care of this community was one of the aspects that interested her about her new role.

"I would like to give continuity with what has been done in recent years, promoting new ideas and the inclinations of our young members. I would particularly like to try to involve more members from the Asian chapters, which are currently the least represented in terms of active members in the committee." she said.

"Next year we are fortunate to have two regional conferences, EuroGeo8 and GeoAsia8, during which our committee will participate as usual with social events dedicated to young members and the much-anticipated student awards, awards dedicated to European and Asian students."

Viviana is currently a researcher in geotechnics at the University of Padua in Italy. She recalls the impact her post-doc at Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg, has had.

"The years spent in Sweden for my postdoc were undoubtedly exceptional. Over the past few years I have been able to range in different fields of geotechnics, such as the stability of partially saturated slopes, and the fragility of river embankments. However, I have continued to develop research topics related to geosynthetics (particularly geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankments), which I invite you to view in my ResearchGate profile," she said.

Viviana is also keen to hear from Young Members so get in touch by emailing youngmembers@geosyntheticssociety.org and share your ideas, questions and feedback.

Images: Viviana Mangraviti wins runner-up in the IGS Young Paper Competition at the 12th ICG in Rome, Italy in 2023.