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Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
ISSMGE Awards Recipients at the Paris Conference 2013
Jean-Louis Briaud, Francois Schlosser, Esve Jacobs
The Awards Ceremony took place on the 3
rd
of September in the main auditorium and was chaired by President Jean-Louis Briaud.
In addition to the two existing awards (Kevin Nash gold medal, Terzaghi Oration), eight new awards were given in 2013.
1
KEVIN NASH GOLD MEDAL
The Kevin Nash Gold Medal is given every four years to a
member of ISSMGE who has distinguished herself or himself
through Service to the Society. The selection committee is made
of all former Presidents of the Society who actually cannot
receive that award. So Pedro Seco e Pinto as Past President
organized a group made of William van Impe, Kenji Ishihara,
Mike Jamiolkowski, Norbert Morgenstern, and Bengt Broms.
This former presidents council selected as 2013 recipient
Professor Heinz Brandl of Austria.
President Jean-Louis Briaud made the following address :
“
When I think of Heinz Brandl the first thing that comes to
my mind is class and distinction. Professor Heinz Brandl has
made a significant number of remarkable contributions to the
advancement of our field; compaction, geosynthetics,
geothermal energy are but a few examples. But the main reason
why I believe he was selected is because he helped so much
ISSMGE and many member societies in Eastern Europe to
develop, to become prominent, to set up regional conferences,
and to talk to each other at a time where political tension did
exist between countries in this part of the world. So it gives me
great pleasure to give the 2013 Kevin Nash Gold Medal to
Professor Heinz Brandl. Congratulations.
”
2
TERZAGHI ORATOR – SUZANNE LACASSE
The Terzaghi Oration is the highest honor that our society
bestows on one of its members for her or his contributions to
the advancement of our field. The selection is the sole decision
of the President after consultation with the members.
The Terzaghi Orator at the Paris Conference is Dr. Suzanne
Lacasse. Born in Canada, she gets degrees from the University
of Ottawa, Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, and a PhD from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She then teaches at
MIT and heads the soil mechanics laboratory for several years.
She moves to the Norwegian Geotechnical Institutes and
becomes NGI Director in 1991. Dr. Lacasse was President of
CGS, the member society in Canada and is a Member of the
National Academy of Engineering in the USA.
President Jean-Louis Briaud made the following address :
“Dr.Suzanne Lacasse worked in three different countries
Canada, USA, Norway and every time rose to the top of the
geotechnical world. She truly exemplifies the very best we have
in geotechnical engineering. She represents the ideal blend of
academician and practitioner, the perfect mix of theories and
experiments, a demonstrated devotion to her profession, and all
this with a friendly and approachable attitude. Please help me
congratulate the ISSMGE 2013 Terzaghi Orator Suzanne
Lacasse.”
3
ISSMGE AWARDS
3.1
Introduction address by President Jean-Louis Briaud
“
In 2010, I noticed that the number of awards per member
given by ISSMGE was much smaller than the number of awards
per member given by many other notable societies. So we
created an awards committee to study this problem and called it
AWAC. The chair of AWAC was Francois Schlosser with Esve
Jacobs as Secretary. AWAC studied the problem and came back
to the Board with recommendations for the creation of 7 new
awards and the Board approved the new awards. Nominations
were sought about one year ago and AWAC selected 2 potential
winners for each award. The Board made the final decision on
who would be the winner among the two names proposed. I
wish to thank Francois Schlosser, Esve Jacobs and the AWAC
committee members for their excellent work. It was not easy as
your committee started from the very beginning of the process; I
think that the next group of AWAC members will certainly
benefit from your pioneering work. I can add that there was a
very stiff competition for all awards. I also wish to emphasize
that since ISSMGE operates at the planet level, there is nothing
bigger than these awards for humankind. In my mind these are
the very top awards you can receive from your peers. The
winners should be extremely proud of receiving such awards
which are given only every four years”.
3.2
ISSMGE Young Member Award (2)
The ISSMGE Young Member Award is presented to up to 3
young members who are less than 36 years old on 31Dec2013,
and have made outstanding contributions to the development of
geotechnical engineering through their scientific and technical
work. The selection is made in part on the basis of a paper
published in the proceedings of the quadrennial conference.
Two young geotechnical engineers were selected to receive
this award. They are Dr. Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn (Thailand-
Australia) and Dr. Greg Siemens (Canada).
Dr. Rujikiatkamjorn is from Thailand originally and obtained
his PhD from the University of Wollongong in Australia in
2006. He received the Australian Geomechanics Society Thesis
Award for his dissertation and later the 2012 Trollope Medal
from the Australian Geomechanics Society. He has published
extensively already and his work is in the area of soil
improvement in general and wick drains for soft soils in
particular. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of
Wollongong in Wollongong, Australia.
Dr. Siemens received all his degrees including his PhD from
the University of Manitoba in Canada. His work is actually
quite varied but it always has a hydraulic or hydration
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