Sanandam Bordoloi

Areas of expertise

Unsaturated soil mechanics, Geoenvironmental engineering, Waste Valorisation, Soft clay remediation, Bio-based materials, Nature inspired geotechnics

Honors and awards

Telford Premium Prize

Instituted following a bequest made to the Institution by Thomas Telford (1757-1834), first President of the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), to be expended in the provision of medals and premiums awarded annually in connection with papers presented to the Institution. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded from 1837 to 1840. Now, Telford Premiums are awarded to recognise key papers across the journals.<br/><br/>Each year ICE award authors from both industry and academia who have produced work judged by their peers to be of exceptional quality and benefit to the civil engineering, construction and materials science community.

Award or honor granted for a specific work Structures – Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation Jan 2020

Research groups

Mineral Based Materials and Mechanics, Assistant Professor

Sanandam Bordoloi is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Aalto University, Finland, (QS World Rank 36 in Architecture and Built Environment) and a 2026 Academy Research Fellow of the Research Council of Finland. His research advances environmental and sustainable geotechnics through low-carbon construction materials, industrial side-stream valorization, hazardous-waste containment, ecological restoration in tailings storage facility, and climate-resilient infrastructures.

He earned his PhD in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, before joining Aalto University. In his tenure-track appointment, he acts as principal investigator of four externally funded competitive research projects with a combined value exceeding €3 million.

Prof. Bordoloi has published in more than 90 SCI-indexed peer reviewed journal articles and holds a Scopus h-index of 30 (dated July 2026). His work has appeared in leading journals including Journal of Hydrology, ASCE-JGGE, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Géotechnique Letters, Transportation Geotechnics, Engineering Geology, Environmental Geotechnics, and Acta Geotechnica. His contributions span experimental investigation, field monitoring, physical modelling and numerical modelling, with particular emphasis on waste containment infrastructure spanning the mining industry, municipal waste disposal, and low-level nuclear waste.

His international recognition includes the 2020 Telford Premium Award from the ICE, United Kingdom, and the 2025 Excellent International Young Mind in Geotechnics Award of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). He serves as Associate Editor for two SCI-indexed journals- “Environmental Geotechnics” and “Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics”. Prof. Bordoloi states “My research philosophy is drawn from places which shaped my professional career- India’s wisdom, China’s discipline, America’s audacity, and Finland’s harmony with nature. I seek to continue research where ancient insight and modern science build a resilient future.”