The 12th International Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG) Congress was held during Sep. 13-19th, 2014 in Torino, Italy. The congress is one of the international academic congresses that are held once every 4 years by IAEG. Over 1060 delegates from 60 countries and regions were present at the congress, including 132 attendees from China. Profs. Faquan Wu, Ruilin Hu, Drs. Fengshan Ma, Shengwen Qi, Lihui Li and Zhiqing Li from Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGGCAS) attended the congress. 

The main topic of the congress was “Engineering Geology for Society and Territory”, which included 8 secondary topics (climate change and engineering geology, landslide processes, river basin, reservoir sediment and water resources, ocean and the process of the littoral zone, the application of geology in large engineering project, education, professional ethics and public awareness of engineering geology, and cultural heritage conservation). There were 21 keynote presentations, which included a keynote presentation entitled “Large deformation of schist rock tunnel and its control” given by Prof. Faquan Wu. Dr. Shengwen Qi also gave an oral presentation in the group session with topic of “In situ test on dynamic response of single surface slope”, Dr. Lihui Li gave a panel presentation on the topic of “Slope geometry design, deformations and failures of ancient quarries in Zhejiang province”. 

The IAEG meetings of council and executive committee were held on Sept.,13th and 14th respectively. In the council meeting, the representatives voted for the new executive committee of IAEG. Prof. Scott Burns from the USA was voted as chairman, and Prof. Faquan Wu from IGGCAS was voted as secretary general for the period of 2014-2018. In the meeting, the representatives agreed that the 13th IAEG Congress would be held in San Francisco, the IAEG meetings of council and executive committee would be held during 27th -29th Oct., 2015 in New Delhi India, the 10th Asian Regional Symposium would be held during Sep. 26th -27th, 2015 in Kyoto University, Japan. The IAEG international research plan was approved in the meeting, for purpose of promoting the research on hot spots of the engineering geology. 

In the congress, Prof. Roger Cojean from école nationale supérieure des mines de Paris won the IAEG Lifetime Achievement Award (Hans Cloos Medal); Prof. Brian Hawkins from University of Bristol won the IAEG Outstanding Contribution Award (Marcel Arnould Medal); Dr. Louis N.Y. Wong from Nanyang Technological University, Dr. Shengwen Qi from Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Vassilis Marinos from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki won the IAEG Youth Award (Richard Wolters Prize). The Hans Cloos Medal (HCM) and Richard Wolters Prize are set by IAEG, to honor the lifetime achievement of researchers and outstanding researches of youth in the engineering geology area, held once every 2 years. To encourage the competition, starting from 2010, the process to evaluate Richard Wolters Prize includes the following steps: nomination by the national groups, oral defense and finally votes of the jury. 

Dr. Shengwen Qi was being given the awarding certificates by Prof. Carlos Delgado, the Chairman of IAEG