MrPiyush Punetha

Dr Piyush Punetha is a Chancellor's Research Fellow at the School of Civil, Environmental and Sociotechnical Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. His present research is in the field of  'Geotechnical Engineering’ with a focus on ‘Transportation Geotechnics’. 

He completed his PhD in 2022 from UTS, Australia and received the prestigious 'Railway Engineering PhD Thesis Award' from the Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA) for his doctoral thesis. Since completing his PhD, he has secured the highly competitive 'UTS Chancellor’s Research Fellowship' (2026-30), 'FEIT Blue Sky Research Grant' (2024), and contributed to research projects (worth ~$3.2 million) aimed at enhancing the long-term performance and sustainability of transportation infrastructure. He has also worked on consultancy projects related to slope-stability assessment, seismic isolation of structures, liquefaction mitigation and foundation for temporary structures. 

He has research publications in reputed peer-reviewed international journals and conferences, and one patent. He is an active reviewer of over 25 leading international journals and serve as an Editorial Board Member for Scientific Reports. He is a 'University Silver Medallist' in Civil Engineering during his bachelor's degree (for achieving 2nd rank in the entire university comprising 78 affiliated colleges) and has won several awards, including the 'Excellent Paper Award' (2025) from the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG), 'UTS Vice-Chancellor’s Learning & Teaching Citation' (2025), 'Runner-Up' at the Young Geomechanical Professionals’ Night (2024) organised by the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS), ‘People’s Choice Award’ at the TRANSW symposium (2021), ‘Best Oral Presentation Award’ at UTS virtual research showcase (2020), ‘CSIR-CBRI Diamond Jubilee Best Research Paper Award’ (2019), ‘Best Paper Award’ at 6th IYGEC (2017).