On June 5, 2025, Joint Young Members Austria (J-YMA) hosted the 4th J-YMA Symposium at the Montanuniversität Leoben. As part of this specialist event, the renowned ÖGG Support Award from the Austrian Geomechanics Society for outstanding theses in the field of geology and geomechanics was presented. The ÖGG Support Award has been presented since 1995 to outstanding theses and recognizes particularly innovative research achievements by young scientists in the field of geotechnics. The award winners, Nathalie Sagasser and Georg Friedrich, impressed the jury with their excellent theses, “Geothermal utilization of a bored pile wall in the Lainzer Tunnel – Numerical modeling, comparison with measurements and fundamental influences on the structural design, opens an external URL in a new window” and “Numerical modeling of pile-soil interaction under load tests – comparison of measurements and numerical simulations, opens an external URL in a new window” which were written at the Institute of Geotechnics at TU Wien.

In addition to the award winner Nathalie Sagasser and one of her supervisors, Adrian Brunner (TU Vienna), last year's award winner, Johannes Leo (TU Graz), and a representative of the host university, Alexandros Evangelatos (MU Leoben), were also present at the award ceremony. The J-YMA Symposium provides an important annual platform for young professionals in the Austrian geotechnical engineering community.