Dr. Seah Tian Ho had his engineering education at Kings College London and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a Faculty Member at the Asian Institute of Technology and later with Moh and Associates. Dr. Seah is a specialist in laboratory and field testing and instrumentation. Since 2000, Dr. Seah is a Geotechnical Engineer with Alfa Geotech Company Limited and worked on interesting major projects in Thailand, Vietnam and other SE Asian countries.

MESSAGE FROM Prof Kwet-Yew YONG

Past President, Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society (2001-2004, 2004-2007)

Past Chairman, Association of Geotechnical Societies in SE Asia (2010-2013, 2013-2016)

I am honoured to write this message to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society (SEAGS) which was founded in 1967 at AIT by Dr Za-Chieh Moh. I was introduced to the activities of SEAGS in 1979 by the late Dr Tan Swan Beng (President 1977-1980) when I returned from UK to take up a faculty appointment at the National University of Singapore. I became more intimately involved in the running of the Society when I assisted Prof Seng-Lip Lee when he was President of SEAGS (1987-1990). Later I became the third person from Singapore to lead SEAGS as President for two terms (2001-2007) and has since remain an active member of SEAGS Council.

Singapore has contributed its share of geotechnical developments in the Southeast Asian region and its geotechnical engineers, academics and researchers have played a key role in the construction and infrastructure development over the past 50 years that has transformed Singapore from a third world country to a first world urban state. SEAGS played an important role in these developments and the Society provided the platform for Singapore geotechnical community to share and learn from other countries in the region and worldwide. Beside many specialty geotechnical conferences, Singapore organized the 2nd SEAGC in 1970, the 11th SEAGC in 1993 and the inaugural 18thSEAGC-1stAGSSEA in 2013 and also organized 2 Asian Regional Conferences in SMGE in 1979 and 2003. SEAGS was the catalyst and is still a catalyst to the establishment of the many geotechnical national societies in Southeast Asia, including the Geotechnical Society of Singapore (GeoSS) which was established in 2008.

While there are many eminent geotechnical engineers and academics who contributed to making SEAGS an internationally respected society in ISSMGE, Dr Za-Chieh Moh, the founder President and Prof A S Balasubramaniam, the longest serving Secretary-General from 1972-2000 (who was also President 1985-87) were the most visible in raising SEAGS standing in the ISSMGE community. Both are synonymous with SEAGS over the past 50 years. In recent years, Dr Teik-Aun Ooi continued the dedicated service to SEAGS exemplified by Dr Moh and Prof Bala.

I am proud to have been a part of SEAGS for the past 38 years and I wish the Society a Happy 50th Anniversary!

Report of the Second Young African Geotechnical Engineering Conference (2nd YAGEC)

The venue of the 2nd YAGEC was at Yasmine Hammamet located 60 km from the capital Tunis. This conference, co-organized by the International Society of Soil Mechanics (ISSMGE) and Geotechnical Engineering and the Tunisian Society of Soil Mechanics (ATMS), was preceded by the board meeting of ISSMGE held March 15th 2007 at National Engineering School of Tunis (ENIT).

About seventy (70) participants, from nineteen (19) countries, attended the 2nd YAGEC. Five industrial institutions exhibited their products in geotechnical field. In the opening ceremony, after welcome by the ATMS president, the president PS Pinto briefly exposed the activities of ISSMGE and expressed his support for a better emancipation of geotechnical engineering in Africa.

Site Visit to Radès La Goulette Bridge

The proceedings of 2nd YAGEC included thirty six (36) papers among which twenty eight (28) oral presentations were given by young geotechnical engineers from seven countries (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Libya, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia). For several reasons some young geotechnical engineers from Egypt, Nigeria and Sudan were unable to attend the 2nd YAGEC.

Board ISSMGE members contributed in this event by five keynote lectures presented by professors and chairing sessions for oral presentations (PS Pinto, N. Taylor, W. Van Impe, O. Kusakabe and M. Bouassida). The jury composed by the presidents of sessions selected the two best oral presentations for each ATMS awarded 250 Tunisian dinars.

The 2nd YAGEC ended by a technical excursion, the participants visited the project in progress “Radès La Goulette Bridge” and have been informed about soft soil improvement by geodrains.

All participants warmly expressed the good organization as well as well quality of papers presented in the 2nd YAGEC. This successful achievement greatly benefited the supports from the presidency of Tunisian Republic and the Ministry of High Education, Scientific Research and Technology.

Reported by M. Bouassida, Vice President of International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering for Africa

From ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 1 Issue 2 (p.2)
Download in PDF format

Kazuya Yasuhara is Professor Emeritus of Ibaraki University in Japan; His academic career started in Kyushu University where he was from 1968 to 1978, earning a Doctoral Degree as well. He was then a Professor at Ibaraki University from 1990 to 2007.  Prof. Yasuhara was the International Project Coordinator at the Institute of Global Change Adaptation Science from 2010 to 2015. He was also a Review Editor for IPCC AR 5 from 2010 to 2014. Since 2015, Prof. Yasuhara is a Specially appointed researcher at Ibaraki University.

Prof. Yasuhara was at University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign in Illinois, USA from 1979-1981 and was a Post Doctorate Research Fellow at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute from 1986 to 1987.

Prof. Yasuhara was the recipient of several prestigious awards: ASCE Best Paper Award in 1994; JGS Award for Meritorious Service in 1999; Groundwater Science and Technology Award (IAHR) in 2000; JGS Award for the Best Research Achievement in 2004; Best Paper Award from Japan Chapter of International Geosynthetics Society in 2006; and JGS Meritorious Research Award for Ground Environment in 2008.

His current research interest is in Climate change-induced compound geo-disasters in Asia-Pacific regions and their adaptation countermeasures against earthquake-induced settlements of infrastructures. Prof. Yasuhara is the author of a very large number of publications in this field and others in Geotechnics.

Prof. Liao got his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from National Taiwan University (1979), M.Sc. degree from Imperial College of Science and Technology (1982), and Ph. D. degree from Northwestern University (1986). During his teaching career at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), Prof. Liao has served the university extensively including the chairman of Department of Civil & Construction Engineering, the Dean of Research & Development, and the Vice President of the University. Currently, he is a distinguished professor of NTUST.

Prof. Liao was the coordinator of the international investigation committee on the 2010 national expressway landslide in Taiwan. At that time, Prof. Liao served as the president of Taiwan Geotechnical Society. Based on the findings from the investigation, the slope maintenance systems of the national expressway, highway, and railway in Taiwan had been thoroughly overhauled. In addition, Prof. Liao had initiated his research on ground improvement since his Ph. D. research under the supervision of Prof. Ray Krizek at Northwestern University. Since then, he has been working continuously on ground improvement for three decades. He was in charge of drafting the design and construction specifications of ground improvement for the Taiwan Geotechnical Society. Prof. Liao had been active in the soil grouting works for the construction of Taipei MRT.

Prof. Bergado obtained his B.S. in Civil Engineering Degree from MSU in 1974, Master in Soil Engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology in 1976 and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Utah State University in 1982.  Prof. Bergado started his research on probabilistic and reliability analyses of geotechnical properties and structures. Subsequently, he branched out to Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics. He established the Asian Center for Soil Improvement and Geosynthetics (ACSIG) Research Center including the first geosynthetics testing and research laboratory in Thailand. He pioneered the use of prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) to improve the soft Bangkok clay in subsiding ground environment with subsequent combinations of vacuum and heat preloading with notable application in the Second Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) International Airport as well as Motorways and Highways in Bangkok. He also did sustainable research work on recycled and lightweight geomaterials such as rubber tire chips mixed with sand for reinforced embankment construction on soft Bangkok clay. Subsequently, his research projects involved new and creative ideas regarding deep cement mixing method (DMM) such as optimum cement contents and fundamental parameters as well as reinforced DMM called SDCM piles. His research works just before retirement consisted of full scale performance of metallic and polymer geogrids as well as sustainable mitigation of rain-triggered landslides and control of soil erosions using roots of vegetations combined with limited life geosynthetics (LLGs) made of natural fibers.  Prof. Bergado taught courses in Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering, Soil Improvement Techniques, Geosynthetics Engineering, Probabilistic and Risk Assessment in Geotechnical Engineering.  Prof. Bergado published 2 Books, 7 Chapters in Books, 22 Edited Books, 5 Guest Editorships of Journals, 150 Journal Articles, 300 Conference/Invited Papers, 73 Invited/Keynote Lectures, 34 Sponsored Research Projects, and advised 17 Doctoral Graduates, 160 Masters Graduates with 2329 SCOPUS Science Citations (H-Index=27) as of 2015.

Prof. Ikuo Towhata had his engineering education at the prestigious Tokyo University in Japan and is currently a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. Tokyo University is traditionally very strong in Soil Dynamics, Machine Foundations and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering now for several decades. Also recently, Prof. Towhata has written a comprehensive and scholarly book in this discipline (see Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, 2008: publisher Springer). Prof. Towhata was also the Editor in Chief of the well-known Journal, Soils and Foundations. He is an active member of several national and international committee on landslides, earthquake engineering. Recipients of several prestigious awards, Prof. Towhata’s interests in Geotechnics is very wide and are on deformation characteristics of sands, dynamic analysis of earth structures, soil improvement by densification and grouting, stability of slopes and seabeds under static and dynamic conditions, landslides and debris flows, seismic performance based design of geotechnical structures. Author of more than 250 publications, Prof. Towhata has lectured in many leading universities in most continents.

Dr. Noppadol was an Associate Professor in Geotechnical and Earth Resources Engineering in AIT’s School of Engineering and Technology (SET).He became SEAGS President in May 2016. Prior to taking over as President, Dr. Noppadol was serving as Honorary Secretary General of SEAGS. Other AIT faculty members who have served as Secretary General of the Society include Dr. John Nelson (1970-1973), Prof. A.S. Balasubramaniam 1972-2000), and Prof. D.T. Bergado (2000-2013). Prof. Balasubramaniam has also served as President from 1985 – 1987.

AIT’s association with SEAGS stems back from 1967, when the Society was founded at AIT Bangkok by Dr. Za-Chieh Moh, a former AIT faculty member, to cover Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan and other societies in Asia. With a membership of over 200, the Society members are active in soil mechanics and foundation engineering, engineering geology, rock mechanics and geosynthetic engineering.

Keh-Jian Shou (Professor, Ph.D.) is now working with Department of Civil Engineering, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan (since 1994). He get his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from University of Minnesota, U.S.A. (1993). His specialties include rock mechanics/rock engineering, engineering geology, trenchless technologies, and geohazard analysis.

His experience includes: 1. Visiting Professor, CNR/IRPI, Perugia, Italy (2013-2014), 2. Department Head, Department of Civil Engineering, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan (2010-2013), 3. Senior Principal Engineer, Shannon & Wilson, Seatlle, USA (2008), 4. Visiting Professor, Trenchless Technology Center (TTC), Louisiana Technical University, USA (2006), 5. Visiting Professor, Research Center of Urban Safety and Security (RCUSS), Kobe University, Japan (2003~2004), 6. Research Engineer, CSIR/Miningtek, South Africa (1998~1999), 7. Geotechnical Engineer, National Expressway Engineering Bureau, Taiwan (1993-1994).

Louis Ge is a Professor of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan.  He obtained his B.S. in Civil Engineering from NTU in 1995.  He then received his M.S. and Ph.D. from University of Colorado at Boulder in 2000 and 2003, respectively.  Dr. Ge was an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla) from 2004-2011.  In 2011, he joined the Department of Civil Engineering at NTU.  He currently also served as Deputy Vice President of General Affairs at NTU.  Dr. Ge has more than 15 years in geotechnical engineering research, teaching, and consulting.  His research focuses on geo-material characterization, soil liquefaction, ground improvement, and constitutive modeling.

Prof. Ge served at the Soil and Rock Instrumentation Committee of Transportation Research Board (TRB), USA, from 2006-2011.  In addition, he has been serving as member of Soil Properties and Modeling Committee and Unsaturated Soils Committee of Geo-Institute of American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) since 2006 and 2006, respectively.  Prof. Ge also serves as associate editor and editorial board member for several journals, including, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, International Journal of Geomechanics, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Marine Georesources & Geotechnology, and Journal of GeoEngineering.  He has supervised 35 graduate students, including 5 Ph.D. students and has published about 50 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings.