The award was handed over by Professor Chavdar Kolev, President of the Bulgarian Geotechnical Society. The laudatory speech was given by Professor Andrey Totsev, Managing Director of BSSMGE and Professor of Geotechnics at the local university. The award is named after Professor Balush Balushev, the founder of modern soil mechanics in Bulgaria, who followed in the footsteps of Professor Karl von Terzaghi.

To his surprise, Professor Ivailo Ivanov also awarded Professor Adam the "Golden Medal of the University" for his commitment to deepening relations between the universities in Vienna and Sofia and for his services to the education and training of young Bulgarian scientists who have worked at his Institute of Geotechnical Engineering at TU Wien over the last two decades.