De Paepe-Willems Award
This yearly prize is being given in honour of Professor Gustave Willems, President of PIANC from 1956 until his death in 1982. As the PIANC President for seventeen years, Robert De Paepe fostered the international spirit and the professional development of PIANC. In 2002, it was decided to merge the ‘Foundation Robert De Paepe’ with the Gustave Willems Award. Since 2003, the former Gustave Willems Award is known as the ‘PIANC De Paepe-Willems Award’.
Contestants for the prize should not have reached the age of forty and they are required to submit a paper on subjects in the fields of design, construction, improvement, maintenance of operation of inland and maritime waterways (rivers, estuaries, canals, port approaches), of inland and maritime ports and of coastal areas.
The three winning authors receive an amount of € 4,000.00, € 2,000.00 and € 1,000.00 respectively.
DPWA 2024 Winner
Geert Van Cappellen, Secretary-General
Francisco Esteban Lefler, President
Emma Berendsen, Winner DPWA 2024
Mitsuhiko Okada, DPWA 2024 Chair
Emma Berendsen
VAN OORD – The Netherlands
Structural capacities of ship’s parallel hull subject to fender-induced berthing impact loads
Teppei Baba
Penta-Ocean Construction Co., Ltd – Japan
Development of weight compaction-type underwater rubble-leveling robot SEADOM-7
DPWA Winners 2023
Julia Sorgatz
‘Damage Progression Model for Damage Accumulation in Riprap Revetments at Artificial Inland Waterways’
Other Links
Application Form
The participation period for this year has been expired.
