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Tuesday Feb 17, 2026
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Ralph Roscoe Proctor was a US Army engineer who through his dedicated efforts after World War I invented the theory of soil compaction for railroads, highways and dams. He developed what is now known as the Proctor Compaction test, a rational approach to evaluate the desired water content of any type of soil to obtain its optimum compaction level, when used for earth-fill structures including roads, railways, airfields, dams and land reclamation. To this day, Proctor’s soil compaction theories are an essential component even in fundamental teaching for civil engineering undergraduates, and the implications of the Proctor Compaction test are also familiar to sports field curators worldwide as one of the methods, for example, that can be used to adjust the life, pace and bounce in turf cricket pitches, given the type of foundation soil.
The prestigious award recognises Professor Indraratna’s decades of research excellence and outstanding professional contributions to research and impact on the way modern rail and road transport embankments are designed and built, not only in Australia but also where his R&D outcomes have been absorbed in industry practices in several European countries including UK and France, as well as in USA, China, India and Japan.
Through more than 500 peer-reviewed scholarly articles and six research-based books, Professor Indraratna has been instrumental in changing industry practices, including revisions to some Australian and International Standards for improving road embankments and railways.
Professor Indraratna’s research-driven innovations that have been used to improve industry practices include the development of a landfill comprising recycled materials for reclamation work at the Port Kembla near Wollongong City, now one of the busiest 
commercial harbours in New South Wales. He was also a pioneer of the advancement of the application of prefabricated vertical drains to rapidly drain soft soils to prevent water pressure build up and improve rail track stability, as well as developing design software for rail tracks. Through his efforts, several railway tracks in Australia were designed and built, also facilitating the rejuvenation of existing rail track standards.
The first such rail track over very deep estuarine clays was built in the town of Sandgate, near Newcastle City, for the first time in history. Similar concepts of soft soil improvement were also applied for Port of Brisbane reclamation works to support future infrastructure development, where Prof. Indraratna was a key consultant.
Professor Indraratna’s research team was recently awarded a $1.2 million Australian Research Council’s Industry Linkage grant to solve problems with soft clay along Australia’s coast, which creates challenges in designing and building transport infrastructure such as rail lines. This together with an Australian Government grant totalling $1.7 million will help build arguably the world’s best and largest High-speed Rail Testing Facility affiliated to University of Wollongong.
In recognition of his efforts towards rail innovations, Prof. Indraratna was also awarded the EH Davis Memorial Lecture (2010) held at the Institution of Engineers, Australia; prestigious C.S. Desai medal (2014) that he received in Kyoto, Japan; Engineers Australia Transport Medal (2011); Business-Higher Education award sponsored by the Australian Government in 2009, among others.
Professor Indraratna is a Civil Engineering graduate of Imperial College, London, and obtained his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from University of Alberta, Canada. Currently as Senior Professor and a Research Director at the University of Wollongong, Australia, he has earned the reputation as one of the world’s leading researchers and consultants in ground transport infrastructure and soil improvement.
Moreover, as a United Nations expert over several years, and as an Advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka on post-tsunami rehabilitation in 2005, he has made significant contributions to Sri Lanka too, and was honoured by the B.D. Rampala Memorial Lecture of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka in 2013.
Prof. Indraratna is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), the only Sri Lankan Engineer to have been inducted to this highest professional accolade. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (FASCE), Institution of Engineers of Australia (FIEAust) and Sri Lanka (FIESL), and the Geological Society of UK (FGS).
