ISSMGE News & Information Circular, January 2021
The latest instalment of the ISSMGE News & Information Circular is available online.
Society News
132nd IAEG Connector
Summary of FedIGS meeting on 7 December 2020 — the latest issue of the IAEG Connector newsletter is available online.
Australian Geomechanics call for papers
The AGS hosted several female speakers in 2020, including keynotes at local symposia, and Dr Jackie Skipper presenting her Glossop Lecture.
We intend to continue encouraging female professionals to contribute in this way in 2021. Building on this increase in exposure for women in our industry, the AGS would like to produce a dedicated issue of the Australian Geomechanics (AG) journal in 2021, containing papers written by female geotechnical professionals (as the main author or a co-author).
We invite women working in either academia or industry (or both) in the fields of geotechnical engineering/ engineering geology to submit papers in 2021 for publication in the AG journal.
Please consider writing a paper and/or encouraging colleagues who may have some work that they could present. Submissions should be sent through the usual process, as explained here.
We are targeting the second half of 2021 for this journal issue, so please submit papers by the end of April 2021.
ISSMGE News & Information Circular – December 2020
The latest instalment of the ISSMGE news and information circular, for December 2020, is available online.
131st IAEG Connector
6 Missing in Haines, Alaska Landslide — the latest issue of the IAEG Connector newsletter is available online.
YEG Webinar Series
The 5th YEG webinar, titled The use of Innovative Solutions for Slope Modelling and Monitoring will be held on Friday December 18th, 2020.
Search for YEG IAEG’s Zoom Meeting or subscribe to IAEG YEG on Youtube.com
Day: December 18th (Friday), 2020
Time: 14:00 UTC (GMT)
Speakers: Dr. Daniele Giordan (Italy) and Mr. Stratis Karantanellis (Greece)
Register here and a follow-up email will be sent with information.
130th IAEG Connector
Abstracts due December 4, 2020 for 1st IAEG South American Regional Conference — the latest issue of the IAEG Connector newsletter is available online.
ICSMGE 2021 Announcement
As you would be aware, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create significant suffering and uncertainty all around the world. It is very unlikely that international travel restrictions will be eased sufficiently by September 2021 to allow in-person attendance from international delegates. The Advisory Committee of the ICSMGE 2021 met yesterday and agreed to postpone the Conference by approximately six months, that is, until sometime between February and April 2022 in the hope that international travel restrictions will have eased sufficiently by that time to allow most delegates to attend in person. The date will be specified and communicated soon. As a result, the deadline for paper submission to the online portal has been extended to 1 June 2021. Member societies will have until 30 July 2021 to complete their reviews, advise authors and for final, updated papers to be uploaded.
Greater clarity on this will be provided in the coming months for the Conference. We thank you for your continued support and engagement with the ICSMGE 2021.
129th IAEG Connector
Chile Applies for Newest National Group Status — the latest issue of the IAEG Connector newsletter is now available online.
Vale Gavin Alexander
The former NZGS Chair and NZGS Life Member, Gavin Alexander, passed away on 19th November 2020 after a battle with cancer, surrounded by his family.
Gavin served on the NZGS management committee for a decade taking on the roles of Treasurer, Chair and more recently the ISSMGE Vice President for Australasia.
During Gavin’s tenure as Chair the NZGS was awarded the Outstanding Member Society of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in recognition of the impact that the Society was having under his stewardship.
He also took a leading role in managing the Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering Practice Modules, guiding their delivery in a way that has resulted in a very significant improvement in performance across the geotechnical discipline.
Further information, along with a link to an online memorial book, is available on the NZGS website.
128th IAEG Connector
Professor Ulusay Retires as editor of the Bulletin — the latest issue of the IAEG Connector newsletter is available online.
127th IAEG Connector
Abstracts due on December 4, 2020, for IAEG Meeting in Argentina, 2021 — the latest issue of the IAEG Connector is available online.
ISRM Technology Invention Award
In 2019 the ISRM approved the ISRM Science and Technology Awards, which have the following two categories to be conferred on alternate years:
- Science Achievement Award;
- Technological Invention Award.
In 2021 the ISRM Technological Invention Award will be conferred on ISRM corporate members in recognition of one or more of the following contributions to the progress of applied rock mechanics and rock engineering:
- development and application of a new equipment or testing system;
- development and application of a new testing method;
- development and application of a new technology;
- development and application of a new material.
A complete description of the nature and objectives of this Award, as well as of the nomination procedure, can be found in the “GUIDELINE for the ISRM Science and Technology Awards”.
Nominations for the award shall be by the chairs of the ISRM National Groups, which are kindly asked to spread this announcement through their members and to coordinate the nomination procedure.
The deadline for submission of nominations for the ISRM Technology Invention Award 2021 is 20 March 2021.
126th IAEG Connector
7.0 earthquake in Turkey/Greece causes many deaths — The latest issue of the IAEG Connector newsletter is available online.
ISSMGE News & Information Circular, November 202
The latest news and information circular from the ISSMGE is available online.
See the ISSMGE website for full details of all ISSMGE activities.
10th AGERP Lecture
The organising committee of the Lecture Series on Advancements in Geotechnical Engineering: From Research to Practice (AGERP) is pleased to invite you to the 10th instalment of the Lecture series, which will be on ‘Improvement of Soft Soils with special reference to Transport Infrastructure’. This is scheduled to be hosted on 17:00 – 19:30, 13th November 2020 (AEST).
Registration (free and mandatory) for this lecture closes at 00:00, 12th November 2020 (AEST).
The 10th Lecture will be delivered by Professor Buddhima Indraratna (University of Technology Sydney, Australia) and Dr. AHM Kamruzzaman (Transport for NSW, Australia) .
Further information and registration
The flyer for the lecture is available here
Vale John Neilson
John L Neilson passed away on 17th October 2020 at the age of 90, following a 5-year battle with illness.
John’s funeral service will be live-streamed on Monday 02 November at 2pm. John’s family has provided the following link https://bit.ly/2TdzMfG for his friends and colleagues to join this celebration his life.
Members are also invited to leave comments and tributes on the memoriam page. Comments will be collated and shared with John’s family.
IAEG Electronic Newsletter Issue No.3 October 30, 2020
The 2020 IAEG Newsletter Issue No.3 can be downloaded at this link.
The Australia and New Zealand Geotechnical Design Challenge 2020
The Australia and New Zealand Geotechnical Design Challenge is part of an international survey intended to assess the consistency of calculation models and design methods for a variety of geotechnical structures and, where possible, to compare the results with full-scale tests and reliability analyses. The survey includes ten common geotechnical design problems, such as shallow and deep foundations, slope stability and retaining walls, in clay and sand soils.
Harry Poulos gave a briefing regarding the design challenge on 14 October 2020. The briefing is now publicly available to watch.
For those interested in participating in the survey, please follow the steps below:
- Visit the ISSMGE Survey web page
- Download the soils data:
- Submit your answers via GoogleForms
You are welcome to answer as few or as many questions as you wish.
Please submit your queries regarding the design challenge to dena.gabbassova@coffey.com
Fred Baynes webinar
The Fred Baynes webinar “Guidelines for the Development and Application of Engineering Geological Models on Projects”, recorded on October 7th, 2020 is now online and is being made free to all (public) to view on AGS website for next 30 days.