Iveland Jacobsen receives award for best master’s thesis
NGI trainee Linn Iveland Jacobsen won the award for best master’s thesis at Geoteknikkdagen in Oslo on 7 November. The thesis provides new insights into how various binders impact the strength of stabilized Norwegian clay.
Linn Iveland Jacobsen (left) and Alice Werswick after receiving the award for best master’s thesis at Geoteknikkdagen 2025, honoured for their joint work on sustainable improvement of Norwegian clays. ( Photo: Migle Klincaraite)
“It is a great honour to receive this recognition for the thesis I wrote together with Alice Werswick,” says Iveland Jacobsen, who also extends her thanks to their two supervisors at NGI: Sølve Hov and Priscilla Paniagua López.
“Hov and Paniagua were highly engaged and knowledgeable. They helped us delve into the details and truly understand the mechanisms behind the results,” she says.
In its justification, the jury emphasized several key factors: the extensive laboratory work conducted by the two students, the thesis’s contribution of new and relevant knowledge for a more sustainable approach to soil stabilization, and the authors’ clarity and transparency regarding the limitations of their dataset.
“We were genuinely surprised to win. We had been told to attend the event, but we never expected to be selected. It was a great experience for both of us,” says Iveland Jacobsen.
Promising results for alternative binders
The thesis was submitted at NTNU in Trondheim, where Iveland Jacobsen and Werswick examined how drained shear strength parameters change when clay is stabilised with different binders. They tested Tiller-Flotten and Onsøy clays and analyzed the effects of both traditional lime–cement blends and alternative, more sustainable binders, such as cement kiln dust (CKD) and paper sludge ash (PSA).
In several of the tests, the alternative binders demonstrated strong performance, often matching – and occasionally exceeding – the results of traditional lime–cement.
“We saw excellent strength development for several of the more sustainable binders. We hope our findings can encourage industry to adopt more climate-friendly alternatives,” says Iveland Jacobsen.
The thesis also showed that the highly sensitive clay used in the experiments responded well to stabilisation, even when the binder dosage was reduced.
“This indicates that it may be possible to lower binder dosages in such clays without compromising strength. It is an interesting potential, though more research is needed,” she says.
Clays respond differently
Another key finding in the thesis is that the strength development in stabilised clay is strongly governed by the properties of the clay itself.
“What surprised me most was how differently the clays responded. Norwegian clay is not one material, but many, with clear variations in how they react to different binders,” says Iveland Jacobsen.
The two former master's students also investigated the importance of mixing time for strength development. They observed a positive effect on cohesion from 0.5 to 3 minutes, as expected, followed by a slight reduction after three minutes.
“For mixing time, we rely on a single test series, and some of our findings differ from previous studies. The small reduction after three minutes may be due to interpretational uncertainty. We therefore make no recommendations based on this point alone,” she stresses.
For Iveland Jacobsen, receiving the award is also a welcome encouragement in the transition from student life to professional work.
“Winning this prize is, of course, motivating. It's reassuring to know that the work is appreciated. And yes – pursuing research feels a bit more tempting now,” says Iveland Jacobsen with a smile.
