The 17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering was held in the lovely city of Alexandria on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea coast from 5 through 9 October
2009. Alexandria, which was built for Alexander the Great in 332‐
331 BC, is a culturally diverse city of ancient and modern attractions with a European influence. The city extends about 32 km along the north central coast of Egypt and is 220 km from Cairo. Around 80 percent of all of Egypt’s imports and exports pass through the Alexandria port.

The 17th ICSMGE was held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Constructed with the largest diaphragm wall circle in the world, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a revival of the ancient Great Library of Alexandria (built in 288 BC and operating until 412 AD), which established the city as the greatest scientific and intellectual center in the world at the time.

ICSMGE OPENING CEREMONY

The 17th ICSMGE was opened with an address from Prof. Mamdouh Hamza, the chairman of the conference. Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto, president of the ISSMGE, then welcomed the delegates on behalf of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, and Eng. Ahmed El Magraby, Egypt’s Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development, extended an official welcome to Egypt to the conference participants. Mr. Adel Labib, the Governor of Alexandria, and a representative of Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources added their enthusiastic support to the conference and also extended their good wishes to the delegates in Alexandria.

Council Meeting at 17th ICSMGE

Prof. Briaud and Prof. Sêco e Pinto

PARTICIPATION

The conference attracted 1341 geotechnical and ground engineering academics and practitioners from 86 countries, with the largest number of participants (108) hailing from Japan. Africa was also well represented with 144 participants from 16 countries across the continent. Eighty‐one participants from Egypt, the host country, joined their international colleagues in Alexandria.

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Message to ISSMGE from the Vice President for Africa

Professor Samuel Uche Ejezie

Dear professional colleagues of the geotechnical engineering family. My message is intended to sound like an echo reverberating from a Region where geotechnical engineering problems abound, yet the general world-wide perception remains that the profession is relatively not well-developed here. I have therefore programmed this message to cover the report of activities within the region both in the recent past and the present, as well as highlights of our key thrusts for the future.

On my assumption of office in Alexandria last year, I did pledge to work towards closer cooperation among African Member Societies of ISSMGE from North to South and from East to West (Fig. 1). This is with a view to integrating geotechnical engineering activities around the continent so that solutions to geotechnical engineering problems experienced in many parts of the region may be found within Africa itself. To demonstrate my continued commitment to this pledge, I made it a point of duty to participant in every event being organised by any African Member Society of ISSMGE. In the same vein I strongly encouraged our African members to join me in this crusade since it is for the good of our region. In fact, I have continued to advocate that geotechnical engineering should be practised in Africa without boarders so that we can together find local solutions to our ground engineering problems. The benefits of this cooperation have started manifesting, judging from the wide geographical spread of participants recorded in events organised by member societies in the Region in recent times. To me, the era of using models developed for soils of other climatic zones to solve problems related to the engineering behaviour of African soils is over. We have to work together to develop appropriate modes for soils of Africa.

Activities within the Region

In the distant past, Member Societies of African Region were generally known for relatively low level of activity. Of recent, however, that appears to be changing.

Figure 1. Map of Africa

The last international quadrennial conference of ISSMGE in Alexandria, Egypt, apparently re-awakened the hitherto dormant national member societies. To date, at least eleven member societies exist in the Region though at different levels of activity. They include South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, CTGA (Comité Transnational des Géotechniciens d’Afrique), Sudan, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, and Kenya. We are currently making serious efforts to re-energise those of them that are considered to be less active (or inactive).

Since my assumption of office as Vice-President for Africa about one year ago, some of the member societies have carried out various activities which in some cases were international in scope. In fact, landmark Geotechnical Engineering events by member societies have been very noticeable and this has been particularly more pronounced in the two longitudinal extreme zones of the continent, namely North and South. The mid zone (sub-Sahara) is expected to catch up soon though it has peculiar challenges occasioned by unique socio-economic realities.

The major events/activities in the various member societies since the beginning of this year are summarised subsequently.

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Message to ISSMGE Members

Prof. R. Terzariol, The Vice President for South America

Currently the ISSMGE Vice President for South America is Professor Roberto Terzariol. His term will continue until 2013. Roberto E. Terzariol graduated Civil Engineering of National University of Córdoba, Argentine, in 1981. During 1983-1985, he did graduate studies in geotechnical engineering and structures at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. In 2003 he majored university education at the National Technological University of Argentine. He started teaching in 1982 when he was appointed Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the National University of Cordoba. He was promoted to the position of Academic Secretary for Research and Graduated Studies and then Head of Civil Construction Engineering Department both at the University of Córdoba, and became a member of the Academic Council and Executive Board at the same university. Currently he is Vice Dean of the School of Engineering at the same University. He is also Leading Professor at the National Technological University where he taught Foundation Engineering. He teaches courses of geotechnical engineering for Masters and Doctoral degree from several universities in Argentine. He is a very active member of various state and university scientific agencies, serving as the chairman of evaluation committee for research projects and grants.

SOUTH AMERICAN REGION

It is necessary to explain from where we are, who we are, what our significance is in ISSMGE, what our presence is, and what will be the future challenges.

WHERE WE ARE:

Figure 1. Location of SA and distance to other ISSMGE regions

We are located from the Central to the South part of the American Continent. The region includes countries from Central America, Caribbean and South America, both speaking Spanish or Portuguese.

The distance to the other regions ranges between 8.500 and 18.000 km, and the maximum distance from one end to the other of the region is 8.000 km.

This is the problem that threatens the easy communications and exchanges among the member societies. Our continent is the only that is subdivided into two regions.

WHO AND HOW MANY WE ARE:

The region have more than 1300 members in the ISSMGE, and they contribute with the 6% approx. of the ISSMGE`s subscriptions in 2009.

Members of the region, from Argentine, Brazil, Chile and Peru, work in more than ten TCs, like “Unsaturated soils”, “Laboratory testing”, “Underground construction” and others, with a significant involvement in each of them.

The chair of “Megacities” TC is located in the region (Prof. A. Negro of Brazil).

Prof. Victor De Melo, President of the Brazilian Society and formerly VP for South America, was one of the most representative presidents of the ISSMGE.

Figure 2. Societies in region and number of member of each one

The region is composed of 13 member Societies representing many countries. Some of them are very old as the Argentine Society which is 62 years old, and others are very recent as Dominican Society was founded just 3 years ago. There are now three countries that have interest in joining the ISSMGE.

Guatemala has already completed the paperwork and from next year become a new member. Table 1 shows a list of the constituting Societies, and the presidents of each one.

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India had long been keen about hosting the International Conference. The first invitation was filed as early as in 1954 after the 5th Conference. India’s application for the 12th ICSMFE was not successful by a minor margin. Thus, it was truly praised that India would host the 13th Conference. 

Because of winter being the best season in India, the Conference was held on January 5-10 in 1994 and held at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi.

At the Opening Session, the Presidential addresswas delivered by Professor N.R. Morgenstern followed by a high-note Terzaghi Oration by Professor Victor B. de Mello. The Heritage Lecture was presented by Professor Ramamurthy with Mr. H.C. Verma as Chair. At the Opening Session, the Kevin Nash Gold Medal was awarded to Professor John Burland, U.K. for his great contributions to the ideals and goals of ISSMFE.

technical program consisted of five plenary sessions and twelve parallel sessions held in three groups of four concurrent sessions. The traditional subjects, Soil Properties, Foundations, Retaining Structures, Embankment Dams, were the themes of the Main Sessions. A new subject area first addressed in the Main Session was Natural Hazards. The topics of the parallel sessions featured several newly emerging areas for which ISSMFE was expected to take leading roles in the future perspectives. These may be classified as follows. 1) Non- technical subjects: Professional practice, Geotechnical education and Foundations of old monuments and structures, 2) New subject areas: Marine Geotechnology, and Geotextiles and Reinforced earth, and 3) New Technology: Computer Application and Instrumentation and Real-time Management.

The Conference in New Delhi was unique and very instructive. Participants were able to enjoy the deep-rooted historical cultures of India and the geotechnical engineering associated with a strong native flavor. In addition to sophisticated high-tech-based engineering, traditional methodologies were felt substantially in need for developing infrastructure in this part of the world. 

Canadian Geotechnical Society had planned to organize an International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG) in Edmonton on July 11-15, 1994. On the other hand, there had been activities in ISSMFE which had been underway through TC5 on Environment Control and TC7 on Tailings Dams. President N. Morgenstern emphasized the importance of the subject matter and equal sharing of responsibility by the ISSMFE. Then, the conference in Edmonton was put in the framework of general undertakings of the ISSMFE and became the first of the ICEGs, which was followed by the subsequent conferences as summarized in Table 2 together with the events related with environment in ISSMFE. 

In the Council Meeting, Professor M. Jamiolkowski was elected to President and he requested Dr. R. Parry to continue his role as Secretary General.

Editorial 13
India had long been enthusiastic about hosting the ICSMFE. In fact, Professor K.L. Rao was the second Vice- president of Asian Region and it was by his effort that the first Asian Regional Conference of ISSMFE came into existence in New Delhi as early as in 1960. Afterwards the 5th Asian Regional Conference was held in Bangalore (India) in 1975. Professor D. Mohan, whom we pay tribute to for having the 13 ICSMFE held in India, served as Vice-president for the period of 1977-1981.

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9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN TOKYO, JAPAN IN 1977

Cherry hall in the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo city center, was the venue of the 9th ICSMFE which was held on July 11-15 in 1977. President J. Kerisel addressed a message at the Opening Session followed by the four Special Lectures which were enthralling and memorable. Dr. M. Fujii mentioned the enormous efforts in the overall design for construction of the Shinkansen (High-speed railways) between Tokyo and Osaka. Developments in understanding the behaviour of cohesionless soils were overviewed by Professor T. Mogami mainly focusing on the efforts the Japanese researchers had been making since the 1964 Niigata Earthquake. Of particular interest was the lecture by A.W. Skempton who introduced several examples of delayed failure in cut slopes in London marine clay and attributed it to the time length required to attain equilibrium of pore water pressure along potential slip plane. The endearing lecture by R.B. Peck was entitled “Vignettes of four Past Presidents” in which personal profiles as well as technical achievements of four great predecessors, K. Terzaghi, A. Casagrande, A.W. Skempton and L. Bjerrum, were vividly described. These four lectures will remain in our memory as masterpieces.

In the Council Meeting proceeding the Conference week, the rule for deciding the President was changed from the nomination by incumbent and past presidents to the election by secret voting by the representatives of all national member societies. In the first-time attempt for implementing this new scheme, there were six candidates on the list at the beginning. In each round of balloting, a candidate with the fewest number of ballots was successively deleted until a single majority was obtained. After reading out names loudly by the Secretary, Professor Victor de Mello and Professor Masami Fukuoka had secured the tie ballot 22 to 22 in the last round of counting. It was truly a thrilling moment when the Secretary announced slowly but loudly “Fukuoka” in the last reading. Dr. K. Nash was requested to continue his service as Secretary General.

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Photo 1 – The opening ceremony of the 5th IYGEC

Photo 2 – Yelbek Utepov (Ph.D. Student, Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan) giving his talk entitled “Simulation of single pile loading test in a centrifuge to predict its behaviour in real case” during the section-3 of Modelling (3c) with about 50 participants. This photo was taken on August 31, 2013.

Photo 3 – Yelbek Utepov (Ph.D. Student, Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan) near the board of the 18th ICSMGE

Photo 4 – Memorable photo of Kazakhstan and USA delegates, participants of the 18th ICSMGE

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ISSMGE 75 years Anniversary

Address of Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto (Immediate Past President)

For the occasion of Orlando Board meeting on March 2009 the President Prof. Pedro Sêco e Pinto reminded that the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) had its origins at the 1936 International Conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So the 75th Years Anniversary would be in 2011.

During this unforgettable journey the geotechnics torch from Cambridge in 1936, which took place during the 1st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundations Engineering, has already crossed the following cities: Rotterdam, Zurich, London, Paris, Montreal, Mexico, Moscow, Tokyo, Stockholm, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi, Hamburg, Istanbul, Osaka and Alexandria (17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering), with a periodicity of four years.

The diversity of all 84 ISSMGE Societies, distributed over 6 Regions (see Figure 1) is our great richness and a source of inspiration. It is our great challenge, but also a unique opportunity to re-design ISSMGE, due to the changes of basic societal structure, in order to reach a new model. We need to recognise the
importance of dialogue to give our hands, to work together and to pursue perfection to reach the optimum solution. Figure 2 presents the changes in Membership and Member Societies of ISSMGE.

Read more >>

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