Prof Emilio Martínez-Pañeda awarded the medal of the Spanish Society of Structural Integrity

The Spanish Society of Structural Integrity (also known as the Spanish Group of Fracture) was founded in 1984 and brings together more than 300 researchers working in the field. The medal is awarded annually to a distinguished Spanish scientist who has made notable contributions to structural integrity.

Professor Martínez-Pañeda is the youngest ever recipient of this honour. The award was presented at the society’s annual conference, held in Aranjuez (Madrid) from 11–13 March 2026. As part of the ceremony, Professor Martínez-Pañeda delivered an invited extended lecture titled ‘Predicting fractures in ice-sheets and glaciers to improve sea level rise projections (Fracture mechanics for/of the planet Earth)’.

His work applies fracture mechanics to large-scale environmental systems, contributing to improved predictions of ice-sheet failure and, ultimately, global sea level rise—an area of increasing importance in climate science.

Emilio says, “I am very honoured and grateful for this award, which is a result of the excellent and hard work by the DPhil students and postdoctoral researchers of my group, the Mechanics of Materials Lab, all the merit goes to them”.

A video of the ceremony (First 5 min in Spanish, then English) can be found here: https://tv.urjc.es/video/69b42e10ae7edf7eb46048ad

A video of the talk ‘Predicting fractures in ice-sheets and glaciers to improve sea level rise projections’ can be found here: https://youtu.be/jDm7R0PN5Gc