A team of researchers from the Universities of Southampton and Western Australia has won the Institution of Civil Engineers 2026 Hislop Award, which recognises the best paper on an offshore engineering topic across the 35 ICE journals.

This work, led by Southampton’s Dr Katherine Kwa, is inspiring the design of future floating wind energy facilities. The award-winning publication, entitled “Physical and theoretical modelling of embedded mooring line-seabed interaction in sands”, uses geotechnical centrifuge tests to better understand how mooring systems respond to extreme loads. Their approach quantifies how the shape of the embedded line affects the anchor capacity, inspiring new ways to optimize mooring system designs. Katherine’s subsequent work with the Western Australian team, as part of her Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship, has demonstrated the potential for significant cost savings, supporting the growth of floating offshore wind energy.

The Hislop Award paper was published in the journal Geotechnique, and was co-authored with Southampton’s David White, Conleth O’Loughlin and Colm O’Beirne of the University of Western Australia, and Sebastiaan Frankenmolen of Shell.

This is the second year running that the Hislop Award has come to Southampton, after Professor Susan Gourvenec and her collaborators.

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