Smith was presented with the award and a cheque for £5,000 at the Worshipful Company of Engineers' annual Awards Dinner on Tuesday 14 July.
Commenting on receiving the award, Smith said: "It is an incredible honour to receive the prestigious Hawley Award. I am delighted that this research has received such recognition; landslides destroy thousands of lives globally each year and this technology could make a real difference."
His work has produced a means of early warning of landslides through detecting accelerations of slope movement, continuously and in real-time, by quantifying slope deformation behaviour using acoustic emission monitoring. Field trials in the UK, Italy and Canada have been successful and discussions have started to commercialise the approach.
Barry Brooks, Hawley Award Co-ordinator for the Engineers Trust (the charitable arm of the Worshipful Company of Engineers) said: "There was a wide range of technologies presented by this year's applicants, each with potential to improve the environment. However, Alister's project stood out for its combination of proven technology in a relatively simple system that has been demonstrated in the field, with great prospects for commercial use to protect people."
The Fiona and Nicholas Hawley Award, established in 2006, recognises excellent work in 'Engineering Innovation that benefits the Environment' by an early career stage engineer or scientist, resident of the UK, graduate or more senior member of a recognised engineering institution.
