Actes du colloque

Proceedings of the 18

International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013

ELECTION OF REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENTS

The President introduced in turn the elected ISSMGE Regional

Vice-Presidents for 2013 - 2017. They are:

Africa

Professor Fatma Baligh

Asia

Professor Ikuo Towhata

Australasia

Professor Mark Jaksa

Europe

Professor Antonio Gens

North America

Professor Paul Mayne

South America

Professor Jarbas Milititsky

The announcement was greeted with acclamation.

ELECTION OF PRESIDENT FOR THE PERIOD 2013 –

2017

The President invited the three candidates to make their

presentations. These were done in alphabetical order:

Gabriel Auvinet

Roger Frank

Askar Zhussupbekov

Election papers were distributed and the results of the secret

ballot were:

Votes

Gabriel Auvinet

Roger Frank

Askar Zhussupbekov 22

Thus Roger Frank was duly elected President of ISSMGE

for the period 2013 - 2017. This was greeted by acclamation.

VENUE FOR 2015 BOARD AND COUNCIL MEETINGS

The Secretary General reported that in accordance with the

Statutes he had written to the organisers of the regional

conferences in 2015 in Africa, Asia and Europe. He had

received one offer to host the Council meeting in Edinburgh on

the occasion of the European Conference. On a show of hands,

Council agreed nem con for the Council meeting to be held in

Edinburgh in September 2015

SELECTION OF VENUE OF XIX ICSMGE 2017

The President reported that three proposals for hosting the next

international conference had been received from the

geotechnical societies in Australia, China and South Korea.

Representatives from these societies were invited to make a 10-

minute presentation to Council giving details of their bids.

Ballot papers were distributed and the votes cast were declared

as follows:

First Round

Votes

Australia

China

South Korea 34

In the absence of a clear majority, the least favoured

candidate was eliminated, and their second choice votes were

re-distributed to give the following result:

Second Round

Votes

Australia

South Korea 44

Abstentions

Thus it was announced that the XIX ICSMGE 2017 would

be held in Seoul, South Korea. The result was greeted with

acclamation.

INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

The President invited Dimitrios Zekkos, chair of the IDC, to

present his report, the written version of which appears as

Appendix 4. Dimitrios Zekkos reported that the ISSMGE

website had been re-written and launched. The new website

had increased functionality and had new material made

available such as the online ISSMGE Lexicon and webinar

recordings. The IDC had initially proposed that ISSMGE offer

webinars. These have been received favourably and the

recordings of the webinars have subsequently been made

available for viewing from the ISSMGE website. The ISSMGE

Lexicon is now also available from the ISSMGE website. The

geotechnical terms had been translated into twelve languages

and it was hoped that others would be added soon. In

undertaking the translations for the lexicon, the IDC had

received considerable help from colleagues around the world,

and Dimitrios Zekkos expressed his appreciation for their

efforts. In addition, the IDC had been involved in developing a

professional networking site, GeoWorld. The GeoWorld

website includes a special feature, GeoMap, which allows all

members of GeoWorld to locate other members in their vicinity.

The President thanked Dimitrios Zekkos for his report, and

for making the website more interactive. He asked Council for

any questions for Professor Zekkos, and there were none.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEO-ENGINEERING

CASE HISTORIES

Pedro Seco e Pinto, Editor-in-Chief of the IJGCH, presented his

report (Appendix 5). The Journal remained published online

only, and free to all. Initiatives to improve recognition of the

Journal included a “Best Paper Award”, and the introduction of

special themed issues in the future. The President commented

that the Journal was a very important resource of ISSMGE, and

was very pleased that it was available free of charge which

allowed access to technical literature to geo-engineers in

developing countries.

Fidelis Ejikeme (Nigeria) asked if the journal would

consider papers relating to site investigation. Pedro Seco e

Pinto replied that the Journal would consider any and all manner

of case histories. He went on to make a special plea to all

Member Societies and Technical Committees that they submit

papers to the Journal. This would improve the rates of

publication and in turn this would help the Journal’s rating.

MEMBERSHIP, PRACTITIONERS AND

ACADEMICIANS COMMITTEE

Harry Poulos presented his report which is given in Appendix 6.

An important change had been the renaming of the Corporate

Sponsors to become Corporate Associates. He was pleased to

report a significant increase in Corporate Associate membership

which now exceeded 50 with 14 joining ISSMGE in the last two

months.

The question was raised whether Civil Engineering

Departments of universities could become Corporate Associates

of ISSMGE. Harry Poulos replied that this would be acceptable

since universities do have collaborations with industry, but it

was less obvious that such Corporate Associates should be

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