From 1^ST to 4^th, December 2019, the 5^th ISRM Young Scholar’s Symposium on Rock Mechanics and International Symposium on Rock Engineering for Innovative Future was hold in Okinawa, Japan. Associate Chair, Prof Zhang Wengang attended the conference and made academic presentation “Numerical analysis of compressive responses of pillars in spatially variable rock mass”. The presentation was highly recognized by the attendees and won Prof Zhang the award of Outstanding Young Researcher.

YSRM2019 was hosted by the International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering and Japanese Society for Rock Mechanics. It attracted 272 scholars in rock mechanics from over 20 countries for discussions on the challenge and innovation of rock mechanics and rock Engineering. Experts attending the meeting include: Professor Cai Meifeng, academician of Chinese Academy of engineering, Professor Zhu Wancheng, recipient of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Yangtze River scholar, Professor Norikazu Shimizu, vice president of ISRM. The symposium covers basic rock mechanics and numerical analysis methods, sustainable development of energy and mineral resources, technological frontier and theoretical innovation in rock dynamics, etc.