8
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
2. Intelligent Compaction – Correia & Chang, Portugal, 25
th
Oct 2011
3. Eurocode- Bond, UK, 19
th
Dec 2011
4. Risk and Geotech Engrg – Medina & Uzielli, USA, 24
th
Feb 2012
5. Landfill liners – Rowe, Canada, April 2012
6. Unsaturated soils – Alonso, Spain, July 2012
7. Pile driving – Rausche, USA, September 2012
8. Earthquake engineering – Towhata, Japan, November 2012
9. Geosynthetics – Koerner, USA, January 2013
10. Ground Improvement – Varaksin/Huybrechts, Belgium,
March 2013
11. Geophysics – Foti, Italy, May 2013
12. Foundations of very tall structures – Poulos, July 2013
9 AWARDS
In 2009, we had the Terzaghi Oration which is selected by the
President of the Society alone, the Kevin Nash Gold Medal
decided by the Council of Past Presidents, and three young
geotechnical engineer awards decided by a committee of the
Board. After calculating the ratio of awards offered by ISSMGE
over the number of individual members of ISSMGE, I
discovered that this ratio was extremely small compared to most
other professional societies. We created 7 new awards as shown
in Fig. 8. Then we created the Awards committee (AWAC) to
finalize the awards descriptions, handle the collection of
nominations and the selection process. The Board would make
the final choice among the two candidates recommended by the
Awards committee. The awards will be given at the Awards
lunch in Paris and will be recorded on the ISSMGE web site.
Fig. 8 ISSMGE Awards
10 TRAVEL
I travelled extensively over the last 4 years with a total of 80
trips as shown in Fig. 9. During those trips I met so many
people and made so many new friends. It was always a pleasure
to meet geotechnical engineers throughout the world and I
learned so much. I realized how much of a difference there is in
the standard of living across the globe and that these differences
cannot be solved by engineering and medicine alone. The
biggest impediment to progress in some countries is corruption.
Other impediments to an increase in the standard of living are
lack of education and transportation. Until such basic problems
are solved, the third world cannot rapidly improve. I kept many
photographs of my trips and will continue to appreciate them as
very special moments (Fig. 10).
Fig. 9 The 80 places I visited during my Presidency.
SAN DIEGO, USA
DUBAI, UAE
CAIRO, EGYPT
MELBOURNE,
AUSTRALIA
SAMARKAND,
UZBEKHISTAN
PORT AU PRINCE,
HAITI
Terzaghi Oration
Kevin Nash Gold Medal
3 Young Geotechnical Engineer Awards
9 Named Lectures
LAGOS, NIGERIA
LANGZHOU, CHINA
Fig. 10 President Briaud on the road
11 THE ISSMGE FOUNDATION
One of the realizations during my early travel was that there are
huge inequalities in the salaries of geotechnical engineers
throughout the world. Some people told me that their salary was
$1000/year and added “How can I go to the conferences that
you organize when the registration alone approaches one year
salary”. This is when I decided to create the ISSMGE
Foundation. By the way, it seemed very appropriate for a
geotechnical engineering organization to have a Foundation!
Harry Poulos agreed to look after its functioning and to head the
grant distribution process. Today, any member of ISSMGE can
apply for a grant from the Foundation. The application form and
the
rules
are
on
our
web
site
at
.
Many geotechnical engineers, geotechnical companies,
member societies, and even Technical Committees have
contributed to the Foundation (Fig. 11) which currently has
about $140,000 and has awarded grants to 19 people worldwide.
Remember this saying that when you die, the only part of you
that does not die with you is what you have given to others.
Outstanding Technical Committee
Outstanding Member Society
Outstanding Geotechnical Project
Outstanding Innovator
Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer
Outstanding Public Relations
Best paper in the Int. J. Geoeng. Case Hist.
