We are thrilled to announce that active PIANC AU-NZ member Jordan Wolfe has received the prestigious PIANC International De Paepe-Willems Award for 2026. Jordan is a maritime structural engineer from WA who has worked in the ports and marine sector of Australia over the past decade.
This major PIANC award recognises outstanding technical contributions by young professionals to waterborne transport through jury vote on submitted technical papers. Jordan’s work, “Snapback: Novel Methods for the Analysis of Parted Mooring Lines and Resistance Structures” was awarded first place unanimously. The award was presented to Jordan by PIANC’s President Francisco Esteban Lefler at PIANC’s Annual General Assembly held in Hull, England, 13-15 May.
Snapback remains one of the most severe hazards in ports. When a mooring line parts under tension it can recoil violently and sometimes with fatal consequences. Jordan’s work advances our understanding of how fast these lines can move, where they are expected to travel, and how they interact with the structures designed to protect from such events.
“It was a great honour to win this international award.’ Jordan said. “My work on snapback has spanned years now and I’m glad not only that it is recognised but that it adds value to the broader ports community.”
“I want to help create a world worth more to humanity than the stone and steel used to build it.”
Jordan Wolfe
Jordan is a celebrated young engineer, having won the Young Professional Engineer of the Year 2018 for Western Australia, and the PIANC APAC 2022 Author Award awarded to an outstanding APAC Conference paper and presentation for his paper ‘Breaking point: Understanding the dynamics of parted mooring lines and protection barriers.’ He is the Chair of PIANC’s Working Group 251 Guidance on the Design of Parted Mooring Line Arresting Systems (ToR) established in 2024.
Jordan is active in his professional community in PIANC and previously served as Chair of the Young Engineers Australia National Committee. In Jordan’s words: “I want to help create a world worth more to humanity than the stone and steel used to build it”.
To this end, Jordan has recently established Wolfe, an engineering consultancy in Perth. Their work spans maritime, structural, civil, and geotechnical engineering, with particular focus on ports, marine infrastructure, and advanced computational analysis.
For Jordan, it has always been about the big picture. He regards engineering as an act of responsibility. “Good engineering is not merely the production of drawings, calculations, or reports. It is the deliberate creation of meaning, translating ideas into forms that serve humanity, the environment, and the future.”
Huge congratulations to Jordan. He joins an elite list of DPW winners including three others from our region Libby Freeman, William Glamore and Benjamin Popovich.