Following the first international conference WASCON ’91 the international society ISCOWA has been established, in order to come to an organisation with the goal of stimulating exchange of know how in the field of application of waste materials in construction. ISCOWA initiates and participates in the organisation of the WASCON conference series.

As an element of competition the ISCOWA Award has been introduced. The Award will be appointed to a person who has made an excellent contribution to the aims of ISCOWA. A jury selects the winner from nominations put forward by ISCOWA members and presents the winner at the WASCON conferences.

In 1994 the first Award has been appointed to Prof. Joe Cabrera from the University of Leeds and in 1997 the second winner in the chain was dr. H. A. van der Sloot from ECN, The Netherlands. The third ISCOWA Award was awarded to Dr. Ole Hjelmar of DHI, Denmark, at Wascon 2000 in Harrogate, UK. In 2003 in San Sebastián the fourth ISCOWA Award was given to the Dutch ministry for the Environment, represented by Rein Eikelboom. At Wascon 2006 in Belgrade, the fifth ISCOWA Award was given to Annette Johnson. In 2009, in Lyon the sixth ISCOWA Award has been awarded to David Kosson.

In 2012 the award was given to to the young researcher (35 or younger) who presents the best paper (content and presentation) at the WASCON conference. This idea was already introduced at WASCON 2000 in Leeds with the Joe Cabrera Memorial Award, which then has been won by Paula Eskola of VTT Chemical Technology, Finland. In 2012 this concept has been continued in the ISCOWA Award.

The seventh Award winner in 2012 in Gothenburg was Mieke Quaghebeur (VITO, Belgium). Nominees for the ISCOWA Award were Maria Coronada (University of Cantabria, Spain) and Bram Verbinnen (University of Leuven, Belgium). Berta Galán won the WASCON 2012 Poster Prize.

To keep the chain growing it is important that WASCON conferences will be organised. WASCON 2015 will be organised in Santander, Spain.

ISCOWA Awards Page