Bio-data: Professor Sang-Kyu Kim

Snag-Kyu Kim, born in Korea, received his B.S. degree from Korea Military Academy (KMA) in 1957. While serving as a lieutenant, he was selected as a candidate of a faculty member of KMA because of his outstanding academic achievements. He obtained Master of Engineering degree from both Seoul National University (1964) and AIT in the field of Geotechnical engineering (1970). His terminal degree, Doctor of Engineering, was obtained from Seoul National University in 1974.

He started his academic career at KMA teaching Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering to cadets, conducting research and consulting works for the Korean Army and Government. After retired from the Army as a full colonel in 1978 he was invited as a full professor in Civil Engineering Department of Dongguk University in Seoul where his career became much involved not only in academic aspect but in administrative roles, such as Dean of Academic Affairs, Dean of College of Engineering, at the University. He is the author of three different volumes related to soil mechanics and foundation engineering written in Korean and published many papers in journals and proceedings of the related field.

In those years, he had opportunities for research in advanced countries. From 1983 to 1985 he spent 15 months at University of California at Berkeley as a visiting scholar, and again in 1992, he had another opportunity for research at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Prof. Sang-Kyu Kim was elected as the President of Korean Geotechnical Society (KGS) in 1988. While his five years of presidency, he showed a wonderful leadership leading KGS as one of the most successful organizations in Korea. He participated in the council meeting at ISSMFE of Rio de Janeiro as the first representative of KGS after joining the International Society. He served as vice-president of ISSMGE for Asia during the period of 1997-2001. The 11th Asian Regional Conference was held in Seoul in 1999 during his term of vice-presidency. Presently he is a professor emeritus of Dongguk University.

11th ARC Photos

Opening Ceremony of 11th ARC

ARC Council Meeting

Technical Exhibition

3rd iYGEC International Young Geotechnical Engineers’ Conference (iYGEC) 2005
Osaka, Japan / 12–16 September 2005

sponsored by the ISSMGE and the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS)

The International Young Geotechnical Engineer Conference (iYGEC) is an official conference, which has been held under the auspices of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). The aim of the conference is to encourage the young geotechnical engineers to develop a broader scope in geotechnical engineering than the conventional one. This is because the world is now faced by new important problems as those related with environmental issues, mega cities, food and energy supply. The first conference took place in Southampton, U.K. in 2000 and was followed by Constanza-Mamaia of Romania in 2003.

The 3rd iYGEC was recently held in Osaka, Japan from the 12th – 16th of September 2005 and was sponsored by the ISSMGE and the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS). The 88 attendees of iYGEC who are 35 years old or less were chosen from 45 countries with usually 2 delegates coming from each country. All delegates were divided into four groups in which research topics would fall into three themes: environment & disaster prevention, frontiers in geotechnical engineering and engineering practice. By the third day of the conference each group prepared a summary on the common issue that came from their presentations and put forward proposals for the future of geotechnical engineering to the delegates of the 16th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. In additional to the seminars a technical visit was made to a subway construction site in the heart of Osaka’s business district. On the social side, the iYGEC was concluded in the evening on the fourth day with a farewell party, which had been organized with an impressive mouth-watering selection of Japanese cuisine.

The delegates wish to express their commitment to face the challenges of the 21st century, which are numerous and varied. Challenges such as the rapid increase in population, demands for future provision of infrastructure, major natural disasters, and the need to protect and improve our environment have strained resources and increased social problems. The participants of the 3rd iYGEC present the following Appeals to the international geotechnical community:

A. Worldwide, the volume of information relevant to geotechnical engineers is enormous, and yet much of this information is out of reach or difficult to access, especially for those in developing nations. The following are suggested to resolve this situation:

a. Consolidate information into international database- including journals, conference proceedings, past and present research, laboratory methods, data, practical guidelines, project experience, and government sponsored reports.
b. Reduce and ultimately remove the linguistic and financial barriers to obtaining this information.

B. Promote interdisciplinary collaboration and improve communication between academics and practitioners.

C. The quantity of site investigation, instrumentation, laboratory testing and experimental wore is constantly being influenced by political and financial constrains. We should continue to resist this trend.

D. Reach out to international, national and local media and policy-makers. Promote the important contribution of geotechnical engineering and raise the profile and standing of the profession in society.

E. Provide developing nations with engineering assistance, support and solutions that are sustainable at the local level. Create research partnerships between developed and developing countries to solve regional problems in a locally achievable manner.

F. Encourage the development of open-source engineering software applications, to be distributed via international database.

G. The knowledge and experience of our senior colleagues is invaluable. Experienced engineers should be encouraged to pass their knowledge to the next generation of engineers.

H. Encourage every engineer to provide feedback from project experience to the geotechnical communication.

Edited from the Report by Keith Emmett, Sheffield University and Kenny Sorensen, University College London and from the paper by I.Tawhata, University of Tokyo

From ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 1 Issue 1 (p.3)
Download in PDF format

Interviewer: Prof. Osamu Kusakabe and Dr. Pongsakorn Punrattanasin
Date: December 2, 2006 (14:00-17:00)
Place: President’s Room, the Japanese Geotechnical Society

His personal history: Born in 1917. Graduated from Civil Engineering Department, University of Tokyo in 1941. Entered Public Works Research Institute, Ministry of the Interior in the same year as a civil engineer. Made a first report at the 3rd International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering in 1953. Director of the Public Works Research Institute, Ministry of the Construction (1967–1970). Professor at University of Tokyo (1971– 1977). President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (1977-1981). Professor at Science University of Tokyo (1977-1997). President of Public Works Research Center (1989-1993).

Q: Thank you very much for your sparing your important time for this interview. I heard you will be ninety years old next year, but you always look so young. May I ask how you keep fit?

A: My three fundamental principles for a good health are to have good sleep, good meals and regular motions. I cook my own meals considering about good balance of nutrition and I chew well. Of course I don’t drink nor smoke. And I try to do moderate exercise and take a good walk. I get up at 6 o’clock and do some navy exercise and yoga for about 10 minutes and hang from a bar. I walk for 4 km with singing and carrying a 3 kg heavy bag everyday one time each in the morning and in the afternoon. Walking is very important for maintenance of thinking power. I used to take a cold bath until a short time ago because I heard from Prof. Prakash that if we make our skin stronger, then the organs become strong. I go to bed at 9 o’clock. When I was a junior high school student, I went to school by bike all the way of 16 km. In high school, I was a swimming champion. I also played rugby and tennis. In my 40s and 50s, I played golf in the early morning approximately 120 days a year.

Prof. Fukuoka is showing his calisthenics

Q: Today, I would like to hear your story when you were in the office of president of ISSMFE for the first half part of this interview, then I would like to hear your ideas about the present and the future of the geotechnical society. To begin with, would you please talk about the story when you invited, held and managed the conference of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering in 1977for the first time in Asia.

A: The decision to invite the conference was made at the Executive Committee Meeting of the 8th International Conference of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering in Moscow. At that time, Germany also ran as a candidate, but partly because of the excellent speech by Prof. Yoshimi, Tokyo won by voting. At that time, there was a collateral condition to enable people to enter Japan from any country. The target countries were Israel, South Africa, Mainland China and Taiwan. In those days, the Japanese government did not issue visas for culture and sports for South Africa, because of their apartheid policy. At the Executive Committee Meeting in Istanbul, however, a motion was made by a representative from the USA that the President was requested to cancel the Tokyo Conference unless the issue had been resolved in three months, and as a matter of fact, there was a crisis that the Tokyo conference might not have been held.

I went to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with Prof. Nash, Secretary General, who had a close relationship with South Africa and asked for visa issuance permission for culture, but the Section Manager, who was well-versed in British affairs, would not give way. Nash thought that the Tokyo Conference should be cancelled. Then I made a lot of efforts to make him understand the importance of soil mechanics and foundation engineering by taking him to the site of the diaphragm wall construction and so on, and then he finally gave us his consent that issuing a business visa would be OK. That’s how Prof. Blight, Representative of South Africa, could come to Japan >> Read More

The following interview with Prof. Victor F. B. de Mello, has been previously published, in Portuguese, in the Newsletter of the Brazilian Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (e-ABMS, n. 22, August, 2006).

Interviewer: Brazilian Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

ABMS stands for Brazilian Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

Name: Prof. Victor Froilano Bachmann de Mello
Citizenship: Brazilian (1951) and, in parallel, Portuguese-European (re-acquired) Undergraduate studies: MIT, B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, June ’46 Graduate studies: MIT, M.Sc. in Civil Engineering, September ’46 and D.Sc. in Civil- Geotechnical Engineering, December, ’48  Main awards: world-wide (that is, OUR HOMELAND) recognition and from co-citizens in the wide-encompassing profession and outside it, in activities with a firm, unique objective (e.g. Academies of Science and Engineering, Rotary, etc.). Invention Patent U.S. (Patent n. 2651619, 1951 – chemical solidification of soils). President of the ISSMFE, Golden Jubilee, San Francisco, 1985. Global network of dedicated friends. Main activities: learn insatiably, inquire, update and innovate by cross-fertilisation: decide and act in any jobs where he could be useful, always counting on dedicated and enthusiastic disciples.

Victor’s photo taken in 1977 for the Rankine Lecture

ABMS: What facts led to your interest in Civil Engineering?

VFBM: When I was about 7 years old, I was impressed by a bridge being built to replace the ferry-boat. I was immediately ravished by the purpose of Civil Engineering, to conform Nature to the benefit of the quality of life and of the environment.

ABMS: Tell us about your graduate studies at MIT.
VFBM: Out of high school, in December 1941, I was admitted to the Polytechnic (ETH-Zurich), however inaccessible. Incredibly fortunate coincidences led me to advance 2,5 years in College in Allahabad and Lahore (India), and to be admitted to MIT, where I should be on July 1st, 1944. Sailing from Bombay, in a boat carrying some 6700 souls, among which the Rector (Lahore), brother in law of Pres. Compton (MIT), we were lucky enough to leave ahead of time, thus escaping the third largest explosion of the war, on April 14, 1944, which destroyed 6 x 15 blocks in the dock area.

Victor delivering a speech in the Delhi Conference

End of war period, 70% of the students in the armed forces, the rest from neutral countries, especially from Latin America. I accelerated taking about 150% of the curricular units, and also working in the Central Library and in the Cafeteria for self-maintenance, in addition to the fellowship received from the end of the first quarter on. The “Brave New World” (Huxley) and the horrendous military successes (e.g. Los Alamos and the Atomic Bomb) strengthened my priesthood attitude and goal.  

Finished my M.Sc., I was hired by COBAST-LIGHT, just to be subsequently dissuaded in favour of a RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP to head a research project in GEOTECHNICAL-CHEMISTRY, solidification of soils for rapid construction of airfields, while dedicating about one third of my time to my D.Sc. studies.

It has all been quite intense, both academically and socially (e.g., creation of the International Club, support to Antonio de Almeida, Baron, student coming from Buenos Aires, in his efforts to establish a 100-member symphony orchestra). Cycle of lectures at the Rotary about colonial policies. The privilege of making personal acquaintance with Norbert Wiener (CYBERNETICS) and many Nobel prize winners.

ABMS: What is it that attracts you most in the geotechnical profession?
VFBM: What attracts me most is the aforementioned priesthood purpose. It occurred to me, in a lecture, to declare “Choose your love and love your choice”. From the professional viewpoint, I am attracted by (1) the immeasurable Divine creativity of never presenting us with two simple, identical cases, everything being complex and random, except after the diagnosis of being amenable to simplification and thereby reasonably similar; (2) the Challenge of Diagnostic, of Determination, of Decision in spite of Uncertainty.  >> Read More

Interviewer: Dr. Jiro Takemura, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Date: July 28, 2008
Place: President’s Room, The Japanese Geotechnical Society

His Personal History: Born in 1924 in Kunsan City Korea. Graduated from Civil Engineering Department, Tokyo Imperial University in 1946. Entered Hazama Corporation in the same year as a civil engineer. Director of R & D section and Technical Research Institute of Hazama Corporation (1976 – 1985). First appearance in ICSMFE in 1977, Tokyo, as a panelist, President of Japanese Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (1984 – 1985), Chair of TC18, Penetrability and Drivability of Piles (1982-1958) and Pile Driving (1986-1989), Chair of TC28, Underground Construction in Soft Ground (1988-1996). Professor at Tokyo University of Science (1987- 1998).

Q: Professor, you are going to be 84 years old pretty soon but you are still working actively participating in some academic societies. May I ask what the key to your staying healthy is, or if you have any special source of energy?

A: Well, I don’t think I have been really cautious to live a healthy life. I rather have been living an unhealthy life. Actually I have gotten into dangerous situations many times. Among them, I have suffered from pneumonia twice. The first time was when I was working for Tokyo University of Science and I went to the university with an oxygen tank. When I had pneumonia two years ago for the second time, I was kind of used to it so that I even gave advice to the nurses.

Joking aside, I think I owe my longevity to my wife, who is a medical doctor. My wife, who is one year younger than I, had her own medical clinic next door and had been working as an active doctor until last year. I can not thank my wife enough because I have a genuine home doctor. If I can say I have a secret of my green old age, it’s because I remain interested in various things and keep on studying.

Q: You have a 41-year-long career as an engineer in a private sector and a more than 20-year-long career as an educator and researcher in academia. In the meantime, you actively worked on academic society activities and international activities. In the first half of this interview, I would like you to talk about your engineer days, when you started your career, and in the second half, I would like you to talk about your experiences as an educator and President of the Society and about your international activities. To begin with, would you please talk about your engineer days in a private sector when you were young?

A: Although I worked for a construction company, I belonged to the Design and R&D Department and I had never been in charge of actual construction at the site. Only when a problem arose at the construction site, I went there and coped with the problem. That was my main job. In the company I was working for at that time, it was said that promotion could not be expected unless you worked at a dam construction site, but I did not care about that kind of thing. However, it was said that some hundred thousand yen could be saved if I went to the site.

Q: Could you tell me about the occasion which you can not forget possibly among them?

A: What I remember very well is, when I was working on digging a research tunnel at the site of Hatogaya dam construction in 1954, that I bumped into a weak layer, which was white and crumbled just like wheat, and did not include water. When I encountered this, I even thought I had to be resigned to die, for it might have collapsed anytime. I had no knowledge or experience about that kind of weak layer, so I seriously wondered as to how to address it, but, after studying various kinds of literature, I finally found a report as to dealing with weak layers of Shasta Dam in America, and, with that as a reference, by means of broadening the width of the dam, I succeeded in solving the problem.

Another time, I was in charge of design work for militarization of Haneda Airfield, and in the course of discussion with the person in charge in the US Army, I learned the importance of consultant business in the USA. Especially, in quotation of design business, once or twice I inflated the amount largely because I heard, if the quotation was too low, the work itself might be underappreciated. Eventually the final amount exceeded the quotation by design change and that kind of thing.

In the business with the US Army, when I constructed the Yamoto Airfield in Sendai, although there was a design condition with an instruction that “the material which might cause alkali aggregate reaction should not be used”, I had no idea about that then, but I somehow studied and coped with it.

Q: Regarding your involvement in the Geotechnical Society, starting from the President from 1984 to 1985 while you were a director of Hazama Corporation, you contributed to the Japan Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering serving as the Director of the General Affairs Department and Vice President successively. Are there any unforgettable incidents?

A: My contribution to the Society of Soil Mechanics which I am proud of is that I introduced the concept of business management to the activities of the society and I actually gained considerable amount of income. For example, in those days, when it came to estimating the publication cost, since miscellaneous expenses were not taken into account and book costs were so low, naturally it could not serve as a source of income.

Q: Do you have any special memories about the international conference which was held in Tokyo in 1977?

A: In the Tokyo Conference in 1977, the late Prof. Nakase managed the conference and I was in charge of all the miscellaneous business. Among them what was the most memorable thing was the wine that was served in the banquet. When I asked a friend of mine, Dr. Tadashi Hiroyasu (currently Professor Emeritus of Chiba ‘University, Faculty of Horticulture) about wine, he recommended Yamanashi wine. For the reason that it had been kept and aged in a quiet environment, and that it was advantageous in terms of transportation, I selected Yamanashi wine to be served at the party, which received a very good reputation. I remember very well that the participants checked the bottle and they were surprised to find out that it was made in Japan.

Q: You are kind of a pioneer of ground anchors in Japan. Do you have any special memories?

A: At the time of the Tokyo Conference, I got acquainted with Prof. Littlejohn at the session of ground anchors, and he suggested that I should go to England by all means. So I went to Bolton, England, and I was taught by Prof. William Deppner many things about anchors. In addition, I learned about the application examples of large diameter ground anchors in foreign countries. That led me to an idea of using a ground anchor when I worked on a large scale earth excavation of over 300m in length and 100m in width in front of Nagoya Station, because the strut would shrink and cause a large deformation of the wall, and eventually I could complete the construction successfully. The president of Hazama Corporation at that time who saw it decided to establish a company specialized in anchors and I assumed the office of president of the company. I have been involved in ground anchor business longest through my career and I am still serving as an advisor for the Japan Anchor Association.

Q: You have worked as chairs for the two TCs in the International Society until now. Would you tell me something about it?

Prof. Fujita is checking the note of remembrance

A: My special involvement in the Technical Committee in the International Society was in the fields of pile foundation and tunnel. As for pile foundation, I worked as Chair of TC on Penetrability and Drivability of Piles, which was established at the proposal of the Japanese society. I had Dr. Hideaki Kishida, Tokyo Institute of Technology, work as Secretary, and we held a symposium on the day before the 11th International Conference (San Francisco Conference) in 1985. In those days Stress Wave Theory began to spread and I remember very well that we had active opinion exchanges with Prof. Gobel and other participants. I published the detailed record of opinions in this symposium. Inheriting the result, I assumed the Chair for Pile Driving (TC18), having Dr. Kishida again as Secretary. At the same time, I launched a domestic committee in the Geotechnical Society and proceeded with study of Stress Wave Theory with young people. Now those young people have grown up wonderfully. Prof. Matsumoto, Kanazawa University, is one of them. In the 12th International Conference in 1989 (Rio Conference) held under the leadership of then President Broms, as TCs took charge of managing discussion sessions, TC18 was in charge of Discussion session 14 on Drivability of piles. I asked Prof. Randolph and Prof. Kusakabe to be discussion leaders for it, and we had reports about the current status survey on pile driving and bearing capacity, then had a panel discussion about the research issue on pile driving. I also published the detailed report of it.  In the 1989 Rio Conference, I was requested to give a special lecture on “Underground Construction, Tunnel, Underground Transportation”, so I mainly explained about the Japanese advanced tunnel technology. It led to the establishment of the present TC28 “Underground Construction in Soft Ground” by the new President Morgenstern, and I again assumed the chair. My first work for TC28 was the survey on the tunnel and bracing technology and design in each country and collection of case history, and based on the survey, I held the first symposium on the day before the 13th Conference in New Delhi. The most memorable thing is that I was presented a gift of appreciation from Secretary General Dr. Parry and Chair Prof. Mair at the banquet of TC28 symposium in London, 1996. Since then, TC28 conferences have been held every three years periodically in London, 1996, and Tokyo,1999, in turn, centering around case history. This year we have 6th symposium. I am still working as Honorary Chairman.

Q: Moving into academia from a private sector has now become nothing new. However, I think it is still rare in Japan that an engineer like you who is well-versed in all aspects of practical business moves into academia. Would you please tell us your idea about the difference of roles between the private sector and academia, and give us some advice to your junior fellows in both sectors?

A: The difference between the private sector and academia is whether they have a sense of business management. There may be a way of thinking that that kind of thing can be learned after starting work, but I think that an important hint should be given in their student days. Not only students but also university teachers should learn business management by all means.

Q: When we sum up your career as an engineer, first you solved various problems, studied overseas technologies and introduced them to Japan in order to meet each requirement, and have developed a prominent sense as an engineer. Later, as an engineer, you have made a great contribution to advanced education as well as to international expansion of construction technology of Japan which made a great progress, and also to its further progress. Would you please give us some advice especially to young engineers in Japan and overseas?

 A: I would like to tell them to respect your seniors including teachers. From a different perspective, you have to work really hard in order to set an example to your juniors when you become a senior or a teacher who can be relied upon. To keep a good relationship between seniors and juniors. This is a private matter, but when my own house had a fire in April this year, one of my juniors rushed to my house to help us. I feel most grateful to him.

Prof. Fujita and Dr.Jiro Takemura

Q: Last question. What do you like to do as a hobby?

A: I have nothing special as a hobby. It may be participating in various meetings and learning new things, I would say. I also visit disaster sites. I went to the earthquake-hit area of the 2007 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake.

————————————————————————————————————————–Prof. Fujita, the past chairman of two technical committees (TC18 and Tc28) told me about large number of stories referring a notebook which contains his long personal history with detail data ranging more than 60 years. The interview went on for nearly three hours. I was thankful to his enthusiastic attitude and also astonished by his never-ending energy and challenging spirit, power of memory, and vast knowledge based on huge real experiences. The interviewer hopes that the readers enjoy reading Prof. Fujita’s stories and sharing his thoughts.

Due to the page limitation, some of interesting stories had to be edited or omitted in this written version. The reviewer has full responsibility for it. Ms. Emiko Serino kindly helped me for translating from Japanese version to English.

                                                                                                                           Dr. Jiro Takemura

An interview with Dr. Moh was made in Taipei on November 14th, 2012. As is well known, Dr. Moh has made remarkable achievements in the fields of education at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), practice through his consulting firm, and societal activities in the Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society of which he is the founder.

During the interview, the first topic was his recent activities and interests. In addition to infrastructure developments, he is concerned with projects of bigger scales. Moreover, he believes that future geotechnical engineering should pay more attention to disaster mitigation. Design of disaster prevention/mitigation structures is one of his target businesses. From the viewpoint of the future geotechnical engineering, he mentioned that GIS will be a useful tool. Another future direction is “Green Design” by which clean and ecological community is developed. He is doing practice internationally on design of office buildings, subways, and even urban design. Risk analysis is another important topic of his activity.

The second topic was his good memory of geotechnical engineering. His best memory is that he took Karl Terzaghi’s course in his final year at Harvard. His lecture showed many slides of photographs. While Dr. Moh’s advisor was Prof. Lamb, Terzaghi also visited MIT occasionally and gave many valuable advices to him and other students. Dr. Moh states that Terzaghi had a very wide range of knowledge including soil chemistry.

After his degree from MIT, Dr. Moh worked for Woodward-Clyde and then moved to Yale University. It was this time that AIT was recruiting academic staffs for the new development of geotechnical engineering division. Initially, he got an appointment for 18 months, which was later extended to 11 years. During t hat period, he obtained good supports from AIT and installed good educational programs and equipments. He devoted enthusiastically to AIT as a vice president.

After AIT, he turned to practice. At the beginning, only he and his brother worked together. The first job was the restoration of runway pavement in the Taipei Airport. A 6m*6m panel of an existing pavement was removed, the subsoil was compacted, and the new pavement was cured. The challenge was that the entire process had to be completed in six hours during the night when no flight was scheduled. He recalls one night when a typhoon unexpectedly attacked the site, irrespective of the weather forecast, where new concrete had just been cast. It is still his good memory that next morning Boeing 747 safely landed on his brand-new pavement. Another good achievement of his was a construction of tunnel at only 6 meters below an airport runway. This job was successfully done without affecting the operation of the airport. With these achievements, his company grew to an international giant.

Finally, the interviewer made a request to Dr. Moh to give valuable advices to younger generations. He is afraid that recent fresh bachelors are not so much interested in basic academic issues as before, possibly because their lives are too easy. To improve this situation, his company takes care of 6-month internship for master students from abroad. He believes that an internship for 6 weeks, which is often the case for undergraduate students, is too short.

During the interview, the interviewer felt that Dr. Moh maintains his deep interest and strong enthusiasm in soil and geotechnical matters. It is desired that Dr. Moh will keep playing important roles in the world of geotechnical engineering and even in other areas.
                                                                                                                            by Ikuo Towhata

Professor Ramanath Keshavarao Katti, Professor Emeritus, IIT Bombay, India.

Interviewer: Madhira R. Madhav, Vice President (Asia), ISSMGE and Professor Emeritus, J.N.T. University, Hyderabad, India (Email:madhavmr@gmail.com)

Madhav: Prof. Katti, it is indeed very nice of you to give this interview. I thank you on behalf of ISSMGE, Prof. Kusakabe, Editor of the Bulletin and Dr. Choudhury, Managing Editor of June 2009 issue of the Bulletin. Can you share your beginnings and entry in to the nascent field of Geotechnical Engineering of which you are a pioneer especially in India?

Prof. Katti: I was born during the British Raj in Bijapur, Bombay presidency in 1928. My father was an overseer after his Diploma from Poona Engineering College in 1915. I completed my matriculation with high marks in Mathematics, Sciences and Sanskrit. I was keen to go for Arts and pursue my studies in Sanskrit. However, I heeded the advice of my parents to go for Science. I joined Fergusson College and completed my Inter-Science in First Class. I was admitted to Mechanical Engineering but changed over to Civil after the first year even though I was doing very well in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering subjects, because opportunities in Mechanical Engineering were then limited. I joined Kakrapara project, a part of Tapti River Valley Project in 1952. I was posted as a junior engineer at Mahuva, Navasari, in charge of Irrigation Colony. I encountered black cotton soil deposit for the first time and was told that the buildings being constructed would get lifted up when it gets wet instead of settling and in the process walls will crack and floors would be lifted up. When the foundation was cast for the first building and water sprinkled for curing the base course got lifted up and hence cracked. Mr. Nayegamwala, Head of the department at Poona Engineering College, posted as executive engineer on the project told me that there was no solution to construct stable structures on black cotton soils. My elder brother was working for his Ph. D. and I realised that some research is needed to solve this problem. I got admission to Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa USA, soon after to pursue graduate studies under Exchange Visitor Programme. Thus I switched from professional career to academics.

I left India in 1953 by boat and reached Ames after 35 days of travel. Prof. Davidson, my guide, asked me to meet Prof. Stewart, the Head of the Department, to finalise my course programme for the fall session. He put me in structural engineering stream. However, it became necessary for me to pursue my graduate studies in Highway Engineering or Soil Engineering as an assistantship was available only in a Highway Research Board sponsored research. I took Highway Engineering as a major and Soil Engineering and Earth Sciences as minors. The topic for my Masters dissertation was Soil Stabilization with Bituminous Materials. For this purpose I had to take courses in organic chemistry, physical chemistry, electro chemistry, soil genesis and classification, clay mineralogy, in addition to my engineering subjects. These subjects helped me in providing a strong science based research programme for Ph. D. thesis in soil engineering and for solving problems due to expansive soil on scientific basis. They helped me in analysing large organic cations with silica surfaces in the form of thin films, free energy interaction between silica surfaces and water and silica surfaces and large organic chains. At certain conditions thin films of large organic chains can replace thin water films. This was unconventional behaviour but scientifically acceptable. Thus in dealing with unconventional behaviour soil one should consider soil particles as matter and apply thermodynamics, physical chemistry and earth science principles to solve stress – deformation problems. My outlook towards solving unconventional behaviour of soil water system or stabilized soil changed forever. I was awarded National Scholastic Honour. Several papers based on my work were accepted for presentation and published in HRB journal.

Madhav: Could you apply your research on expansive soils in US while working for your Ph.D.?

Prof. Katti: Dr. Davidson got a large consulting project to develop methods to utilize fly ash for stabilization of road bases on various types of soil deposits in Detroit Edison power plant area. 700,000 tonnes of fly ash was being produced per year as a waste product. One dollar per tonne was being spent for disposal. The project involved development of a method to stabilize soils for road building and construction methods including equipment for field construction. The studies were to be conducted both in the laboratory and in the field. The entire work was to be completed in 55 days. The temperature in the field could go below 55o F and the mix would not harden. Many of my colleagues refused to work on the project because of time constraint but I offered to work on it and the project was completed on time. Detroit Edison Co. started selling the fly ash at factory outlet for 1.5 $ per tonne. I had to sacrifice a term but it paid off in my future life as I could handle any difficult problem. >> Read more

Interviewer: Professor Kenichi Soga, University of Cambridge
Date: January 24, 2008
Place: Engineering Department, University of Cambridge

KS: Andrew, after you graduated what did you do?

AS: Prof. J. F. Baker suggested I see London consultant engineers Scott and Wilson (SW), where his former pupil Henry Grace worked. I thought I might work on concrete shell design but I was interviewed by Guthlac Wilson and offered work as a junior engineer in Nyasaland (now Malawi) where Henry Grace was the local partner, and I accepted. On leaving the interview I asked his secretary where Nyasaland was! Henry Grace had been at Harvard and a graduate pupil of Casagrande before WWII, in which he served in airfield construction. He was an excellent engineer to work for. Clayey laterite had been used as pavement material for Cheleka airfield. There were failures and he wanted to see how Lime stabilisation could improve the bearing capacity of future pavements. He asked me to perform California Bearing Ratio tests on lime and cement stabilised Laterite in the SW soil mechanics laboratory, and then set me to find from air photos, sources of clayey laterite for use in low cost road pavements. I constructed trial pavements and prepared the Specifications and Bills of Quantities for contracts for lengths of road to be constructed in the Nyasaland Protectorate in 1954.

KS: After this, you decided to do your PhD or did somebody else ask you to do a PhD?

AS: Ken Roscoe had lectured to me in soil mechanics and was then beginning research. He wrote to me from Cambridge inviting me to return from Nyasaland to be his first research student. When I came back he got me to write up my road work as an essay for the Cambridge University ‘John Winbolt’ Prize; I won that prize and then rewrote the essay as three 1957 Colonial Road Notes for the UK Road Research Laboratory, which then won ICE Miller Prizes.

KS: How did your PhD research topic come up?

AS: Roscoe offered me two topics; he wanted one student to get data with his simple shear apparatus and another student to collaborate with Prof. Baker’s structures group in short pier foundation design to provide moment fixity for the stanchions of welded mild steel frames. Moment fixity at each base would make the best use of the steel in the welded frame. A horizontal force at the base would be carried by a concrete floor slab, but the full plastic moment at the base must be resisted with the moment fixity of a short pier. I chose the collaboration with Baker’s group and began my study of earth pressures. In my PhD experiments I measured the development of lateral earth pressure on a plate with an axis of rotation at the surface of sand in a test tank.

KS: During this work you became very interested in plasticity and I guess this led to Cam Clay?

AS: Yes, I read everything I could about plasticity and was impressed with what I found in the Russian literature. I only had enough Russian to be able to read one word after another in journals in the University Library with a dictionary. I later managed to get some funding to get the books translated. But theory of plasticity did not fit test data of soil strength. I asked Roscoe for help and he gave me his translation of Hvorslev’s PhD thesis from the German into English (as a prisoner of war throughout WWII he knew German and he later insisted that all research students read it). Hvorslev’s equation led me to make what is now called Hvorslev’s surface, bending copper wire into a sloping surface, with a curved line edge; it seemed to me that as test paths progressed each must arrive eventually at this edge, the Critical State (CS) Line. That was the beginning of CS discussions with Roscoe. His simple shear apparatus was designed to study the changes of volume of soil in test paths. By this time a second research student had arrived, Peter Wroth. He had no Civil Engineering experience, having been an artillery officer in military service, and had difficulty in getting Roscoe’s simple shear apparatus (SSA) to work because it had a basic flaw. The specimen had upper and the lower rough surfaces with equal and opposite shear stresses. For a uniform state the soil needed complimentary shear stresses on the vertical ends. In order to allow the soil to dilate had used lubricated rubber sheets to eliminate shear on the rotating end flaps. The stresses in the interior sample could never be uniform, making endless difficulty with the SSA apparatus. A change came. Prof. Baker advertised a post for a Demonstrator to work with Roscoe and begin the Cambridge Soils Group. Both Peter Wroth and I applied and were interviewed. Having worked with SW in Africa I was appointed, but Roscoe hoped that Peter Wroth would finish his PhD thesis, get industrial experience, and then return to the Group.

KS: Then you did triaxial testing with Thurairajah, rather than simple shear tests.

AS: Yes. At that time Imperial College began publishing Geotechnique papers about the pore pressure development in clay.

Casagrande’s original paper on critical void ratios was concerned with liquefaction and with the prediction of the pore pressure in sand that was unable to change its volume during rapid shear at constant volume. His paper to the Boston Civil Engineers showed a way to find the pore pressure, assuming a critical void ratio with a constant value. However the work of Hvorslev and the Imperial College data showed that the CS varied with the effective pressure. We needed test data of soil on the ‘wet’ side of the CS to study the change of volume or of pore pressure. Roscoe wanted this to happen in his SSA but drainage from clay means that each test takes a long time. Peter Wroth could test sand quite quickly but there was no chance of quick SSA on clay. So Roscoe took Peter Wroth up to Imperial College and asked Prof. Skempton for access to the PhD theses that were the basis of the new Geotechnique papers. Skempton was very confident of the excellence of Imperial College and let Roscoe and Wroth take the theses to Cambridge. I had analysed the Geotechnique papers and now Peter Wroth as the research student could study the theses in detail. By early 1957 he had new test path data on the wet side of CS. It was an exciting year because of the London Conference of the International Society in which Skempton played a very prominent role. Our Group was not ready to make a contribution but we discussed what we should do with the new CS line. Slides were made showing what we had found with drained or undrained test paths approaching a CS line from ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ sides. Roscoe went up to the conference in London with this box of slides in his pocket so that he could get up and show them if needed. Nobody said anything about pore pressures or our CS stuff and he came back from London saying we were far ahead of everyone else, with 10 years in which to get good data from the SSA I decided to begin triaxial testing. Then in November 1957 David Henkel stood up at a meeting at the Institution of Civil Engineers and began to suggest the same sort of CS idea as ours. Peter Wroth sitting one side of Roscoe and I on the other side both nudged him with our elbows and said ‘unless you get up and say something now we will lose all our work’. Roscoe stood up and said ‘we are preparing a paper on this in Cambridge for submission to Geotechnique’. Dr. Cooling, Editor of Geotechnique, told Roscoe that if we put our paper in quickly it would be published, so we quickly wrote our paper. When it reached Cooling he sent it for review at Imperial College by David Henkel who saw that his student’s PhD data had been interpreted and he had got no credit for the work they had done, and asked Skempton to ask how it had happened. I believe Roscoe told Cooling that unless Geotechnique published our paper immediately he would send it to the ASCE Journal. Our paper, only written just before Christmas, was published in the March 1958 issue of the Geotechnique.

KS: So Andrew, this present year 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik paper in Geotechnique that launched the Cambridge Soils Group on the international stage.

AS: After 1958 Cambridge had plenty of good applications from well trained students and got UK Science Research Council grants.

KS: And this led to Cam Clay model?

AS: Well, it led to the student, Thurairajah, from Ceylon. There were quite a number of small problems in the 1958 paper but one difficulty was that peak strength in a drained test and in undrained test fitted the same Hvorslev’s surface. This meant that no plastic work is dissipated in volume change. We needed Thurairajah to check this with next research student making careful calculations for every step in his triaxial tests. He came up with a remarkable dissipation function; the energy dissipated by aggregated soil grains depends only on shear distortion and not on the volume change. It was a striking finding but not what you might expect by thinking about micro mechanics. However, at that time Calladine, a former undergraduate at Cambridge who had gone to work at Brown University with Drucker, came back to Cambridge he wanted to see and to interpret Roscoe’s data (much as Roscoe’s student had interpreted David Henkel’s data) but Roscoe refused. I realised that I could combine Thurairajah’s dissipation function and the Associated Flow Rule of Theory of plasticity that Calladine had talked about, to obtain an equation that could be integrated. So Roscoe and I could then publish two papers. One was a Geotechnique paper on the work of Thurairajah (who at that stage had just gone back to Ceylon and had become Professor at the University of Peradeniya). The other was a paper for the European Regional Conference of the International Society in Wisbaden in 1963 that was a purely theoretical paper based on an assumed dissipation function and the plastic normality law.

KS: At the time of the development, did you predict that Cam Clay would be used so much in the world, especially in computational geomechanics?

AS: It’s hard now to remember how recently the computer has come in. When I was a research student analysing the data of my earth pressure tests, simple calculations were performed on a big sheet of paper with columns and a calculating machine with a handle that was physically rotated to multiply numbers of 5 decimal places. All my graphs resulted from work on these big calculation sheets. There were no electronic calculators at that time. The computers which were coming into existence were being used in analyses of structures for study of deterioration of stiffness with deflections and the onset of the instability in columns under compression. No computers had software such as they have now.

What was clear to me was that the CS concept would apply widely in practice. In 1958 immediately after our publication, I visited the Swedish Geotechnical Society in Stockholm and then Gothenburg where failures of the quays had been discussed in a Geotechnique paper. I saw that the large movements of the soft post glacial clay must have generated excess pore pressures. After the failure the harbour was reconstructed and new work built over damaged ground it would show excessive settlements in the regions which had sheared. The crane rails for handling goods on the quay side had had to be continuously levelled; the harbour engineer pulled out the settlement records of the quays and I could see that big dips in the settlement records coincided with the locations where the slides taken place, as predicted.

KS: Another significant achievement you have made is in geotechnical centrifuge testing. So can you tell me what led you to start centrifuge testing?

AS: While reading the Earth Pressure book of V.V. Sokolovski, I found a footnote about ‘the well known modelling method of G.I. Pokrovski’. I followed it up and found several English language publications. A paper at the Harvard Conference of 1937, and also one or two papers in an English language journal called Technical Physics of the Soviet Union. The technology was sound and the ideas fitted in well with critical state soil mechanics, but I felt there must be something wrong, or the Russians would have published more. I was reluctant to begin work but I got a small modelling apparatus made to fix on to the end of a hydraulic turbine. My first experiment in centrifuge modelling with little specimens about 2” x 2” worked well and I was puzzled as to why G.I. Pokrovski published little work. I delayed making applications for a centrifuge but I got a research grant, and I and a new research student got access to a centrifuge in Luton, once used for a British aerospace program. We made models in Cambridge and drove our models, about a metre in overall external length, to Luton and the research student succeeded in making tests. I introduced the idea of centrifuge modelling at a British Geotechnical Society (BGA) meeting. Others began to take interest, in particular Peter Rowe at Manchester who obtained funding and decided he would have a centrifuge. When my book with Wroth was published in 1968 I was invited to become Professor at UMIST. I made applications for funds for centrifuge modelling in Manchester, and when I went there in January 1969 I built a UMIST centrifuge. Prof. Rowe at that time was a major consultant on dams. He built his centrifuge about a year later, so there were two centrifuges in Manchester.

The next big excitement was in 1973 with the International Conference in Moscow. By that stage, having a lot of evidence from the work we had done in Britain that the technique was very good, I wanted to learn what had happened in Russia. I decided that a good idea would be to display our work in the Moscow conference. A simple way was to hire a commercial exhibition space in which to show our work. I wrote to the Moscow Chamber of Commerce, booked a commercial space and got the English centrifuge modellers (my former students in Cambridge and Rowe and I in Manchester) to prepare displays. We went to Moscow and put up all our photographs. The Russians looked at what we were doing and asked what we were selling. I said we hoped to get research contracts for using the centrifuges. Then the Russians asked if we would agree to exchange information and arranged that at the end of the conference everybody who was interested in centrifuge modelling could have a meeting. G.I. Pokrovski was there, an elderly man who was clearly a very distinguished engineer. When I looked round the Soviet centrifuge centre it was clear that they photographed models with a stationary camera in the wall of the centrifuge pit as they flew past. I realised that the event photographed must be an explosion and the reason that the Soviets did not publish must be that it had become military research. In fact G.I. Pokrovski was a leading scientist on weapons effects concerned with multi-megatons weapons, with the rank of General in the Red Army. All that the Soviets knew about explosions and craters was a military secret.

KS: I guess that your centrifuge testing concentrated largely on civil engineering applications and that then led to many people working openly on centrifuges.

AS: Yes, the military secrecy made it essential to have some way to get centrifuges into the public domain where we weren’t regarded as being spies and had no problems in travelling or visiting. This became possible at the time of the Stockholm conference at which Victor de Mello was the President. He agreed that there should be a centrifuge committee TC 2.

KS: This was one of the main reasons for developing at TC 2. The committee became really big now.

AS: Yes, it turned out in 1973 when we went to Moscow that there were two centrifuge modelling groups in Japan; one at Tokyo Institute of Technology but the first one had been at Osaka City University where Prof. Mikasa was one of the Japanese engineers who had been a WWII aircraft designer and in the demilitarisation program had to move into civil engineering. He had the scientific and technical background to develop his own very special centrifuge and original modelling techniques.

KS: I would like now to hear from you about the future of the geotechnical engineering. What do you think first in terms of ISSMGE, what is the future of this society, do you have any thoughts?

AS: I do not think that international cooperation is as good as it should be. It was very striking in the time that I was a research student that Terzaghi was contemptuous of Russian engineering and simply didn’t respect any Russian work. His dismissal of G.I. Pokrovski’s paper was contemptuous. I hope that ISSMGE can get full collaboration both with the Chinese and the Russian research establishments. The next generation of young Western engineers should be familiar both with clever Russian and with clever Chinese engineers.

KS: To these young geotechnical engineers and academics, what technology fields in geotechnical engineering are mostly needed at present in your opinion?

AS: I’m struck by the fact that the soil mechanics in Terzaghi and Peck’s text book is about the post glacial deposits of Northern Europe and the Northern United States. I saw soils in Africa that were transported to form a catenary from that developed involve chemical transport as much as the physical transport of grains. CS soil mechanics is about aggregate of grains and has not developed a place in it for the pore water and soil surface chemistry. For soils of central Russia or China or South East Asia, like their Laterites, it is not clear that CS soil mechanics and Casagrande’s soil classification techniques are the right starting point. It is clear that Coulomb’s equation is not the best starting point. We have a major problem in Europe because we already know that the Mohr-Coulomb equation is wrong but Eurocodes are being rolled out in industry with no rational discussion of Mohr-Coulomb’s equation and cohesion and friction. I have made a beginning with my 2005 book with Thomas Telford Limited. The International Society needs to be able to revise the mechanics of soils; not simply micro the top of mountains down the slopes to the valley bottom. The soil sequences mechanics but including the transport of the chemical nature and thermal effects in soils. As far as I can see much has to begin again.

KS: Thank you Andrew, it looks as though there is a great future in Soil Mechanics and our horizons will continue to expand. So lastly, would you please say a word to the members of the International Society?

AS: Well, my experience of soil mechanics has been that the International Society has played the central role in providing the academic freedom for discussions, publications and contacts. Terzaghi played a vital role in setting up the whole system and creating many opportunities. It is as important today that the International Society has many forums in which young people and older people can discuss their work and can publish as it was 50 years ago in 1957 – 1958 when many scientists came to the 1957 London conference. Whatever enables engineers to get funds, make experiments and discuss them internationally is a very desirable thing. The development of new theories that can lead to new teaching in geotechnical engineering gives the ISSMGE new opportunities.

KS: Thank you Andrew for your insightful thoughts.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Amanda Pyatt and Chang-Shin Gue for their help on editing this interview material.

The Personal History of Professor Andrew N. Schofield (MA, PhD (Cantab); FRS 1992; FREng, FICE)

Born 1 Nov. 1930, Professor of Engineering, Cambridge University, 1974–98, now Professor Emeritus; Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, 1963–66 and since 1974

EDUCATION: Mill Hill Sch.; Christ’s Coll., Cambridge

CAREER: John Winbolt Prize, 1954. Asst Engr, in Malawi, with Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and Partners, 1951. Cambridge Univ.: Demonstrator, 1955, Lectr, 1959, Dept of Engrg. Research Fellow, California Inst. of Technology, 1963–64. Univ. of Manchester Inst. of Science and Technology: Prof. of Civil Engrg, 1968; Head of Dept of Civil and Structural Engrg, 1973. Chm., Andrew N. Schofield & Associates Ltd, 1984–2000. Rankine Lecture, ICE British Geotechnical Soc., 1980. Chm., Tech. Cttee on Centrifuge Testing, Int. Soc. for Soil Mech. and Foundn Engrg, 1982–85. FREng (FEng 1986). James Alfred Ewing Medal, ICE, 1993. US Army Award, Civilian Service
1979

PUBLICATIONS: (with C. P. Wroth) Critical State Soil Mechanics, 1968; (ed with W. H. Craig and R. G. James and contrib.) Centrifuges in Soil Mechanics, 1988; (ed with J. R. Gronow and R. K. Jain and contrib.) Land Disposal of Hazardous Waste, 1988; Disturbed Soil Properties and Geotechnical Design, 2005; papers on soil mechanics and civil engrg

ADDRESS: 9 Little St Mary’s Lane, Cambridge CB2 1RR Tel:(01223) 314536 ans@eng.cam.ac.uk

Prof. Lal Tennekoon

Prof Tennekoon is one of the Senior Geotechnical Academic together with late Prof. Thurairajah and Dr. G.P. Karunaratna contributed to the early development of Geotechnics in Sri Lanka.

This interview was made in December, 2012, in Prof. Balasubramaniam’s office in the Gold Coast Campus of Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. After that, he prepared the first draft of this article in which he is talking to me. I made minor modifications in his draft with his permission. For readers’ convenience, it should be stated that Prof. Bala worked for 27 years at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand and educated many promising people from many countries of Asia.

Ikuo Towhata, Editor of BULLETIN

1: Prof. Bala, tell us a bit about your family background and schooling

Yes, Ikuo, before that; let me say a few words of when you joined AIT in early 1980; Prof. Nishino was our Vice President and he told me that you are rather unique—In Japanese academic system, the Age counts a lot and in the Tokyo University Departmental meeting, when the Chairman said in a formal meeting, Does anybody have any questions. Everyone was surprised, when you raised your hands.

I was born for Sri Lankan Parents in Malaya and returned to Sri Lanka in late 1940’s. I am really a village boy; in the northern part of Sri Lanka. I must say we are all proud of our School education in Sri Lanka.

2: So, Prof. Bala, what made you in this Journey to select Geotechnical Engineering?

Oh, that is interesting Ikuo, I was given a Scholarship to do Doctoral Studies. I had no idea what to do; as up to then, I was merely dependent on my lecture notes and hardly any research experience. But I must say, our lecturers are all Cambridge and Imperial College educated ones. They are truly remarkable. You must know Thurairajah, Ikuo. We call him Thurai, who just returned from Cambridge and taught us about 20 hours of Soil Mechanics. At that time, Soil Mechanics go with Structures. Earlier, Soil Mechanics was taught by our Dean Prof. Pereira who used to teach old earth pressure theories.

So, I went to Thurai and said, I like to do research work in Soil Mechanics on this scholarship. Thurai said, he can recommend me to Cambridge, but be sure not to change your mind later. I only understood the weight age of this statement, when I met Roscoe at Cambridge; it told me a lot of how Thurai appreciated the sentiments and temperament of the late Prof. Roscoe.

In any case Thurai gave three papers to read; one written by Roscoe, Schofield and Wroth in 1958, the other by Roscoe & Poorooshasb in 1963 and the third by Roscoe Schofield and Thurairajah in 1963. All three published in Geotechnique.

3: So, how do you find them reading, Prof. Bala?

It was frankly very tough going, more like torturing. No wonder, Thurai warned me about changing my mind. I read them over and over again. I may have done that more or less over thirty or forty times. Thurai also asked me to read the sections on Shear Strength by D.W. Taylor in his book on Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics. I had some time the feeling, I understood some of them and also a feeling, I did not understand anything.

4: So, when did you go to Cambridge?

Ikuo, at that time the Sri Lankan Scholars took Boats to go to UK. I was on a P&O liner which took about twenty two days to reach London. To be frank, at that time, I only knew Jaffna my home place and Colombo where I was in the University. So, going outside of Sri Lanka was a great learning curve and the Boat trip made my transition a bit easier.

5: Prof. Bala, how was your meeting with Roscoe and others?

I was briefed very well that Roscoe is pretty strict and I need to be very careful. Thurai advised me; perhaps I should take a bottle of Arrack (Sri Lankan equivalent of Whisky) from Sri Lanka and some tea. So, I took these and went to see Ken Roscoe in his Office which was in the third floor of a four storey building. Maybe knowing that I am rather nervous, Ken Roscoe was polite with me.

He asked whether I know any Soil Mechanics. I replied very little, but added I read his three papers. He then asked me how my English is. At Cambridge, I got into some X ray business first. I must thank god for getting out of that and settled later on the experimental work related to the Critical State soil Mechanics.

I also met Prof. Schofield and late Peter Wroth. Andrew was looking for some students to work on Centrifuge and also Cavity Expansion. I did not touch them. Peter Avgherinos in our group of four went into Centrifuge. My advisor was Jimmy James as based on my initial interest in X rays. Jimmy was a remarkable person, interested very much in gliding and flying. I certainly did not want to risk my life. I used to upset Jimmy. Roscoe advised me Jimmy is a nice guy and do not rub Jimmy on the wrong side.

At Cambridge I was very friendly with Dr. Ting Wen Hui from Malaysia and Demetri Coumulos. John Burland was also most helpful; all of them are. I even ran into Arthur Penman who gave a lecture on Dams. Roscoe had many visitors: Gudehus, Leonards, Ron Scott, etc etc.

6: So, how did you went to NGI, Prof. Bala?

It was also an accident Ikuo. When I was in the beginning of my third year, I applied for some job in Sri Lanka. I did not get it. Roscoe used to jokingly say, I was the first person whom he wrote a letter of recommendation and did not get a job. He then added, Laurits Bjerrum the President of the International Society will give the Rankine Lecture and will visit Cambridge also and give a Lecture. Actually, I attended the previous Rankine Lecture by Prof. Bishop and got lost in London. I am not used to big cities. The idea of working with the President of the International Society really appealed to me. That is how; I developed my interest with ISSMGE.

7: Tell us a little bit Prof. Bala about NGI and your work

My doctoral thesis at Cambridge was a bit delayed. I got it vetted by Roscoe. It is remarkable Roscoe can sit with a student and read word by word a thesis and ask what you mean by that and correct it and say, then why don’t you express that way. Roscoe was a remarkable person. He not only did that, but also took us to his home for lunches and dinners. I had four Christmas breaks with Roscoe, Mrs Roscoe and their children.

In any case, I landed in Fornebu Airport in February 1969; my flight was a bit delayed. I was really shocked by the vast amount of snow. Next day morning, I was picked up by a person to see Bjerrum. This person took me to see Bjerrum and said, finally Mr B has arrived. They have abbreviated my name. Then Bjerrum looked at the person who picked me up and said, you will work with Elmo. That was a great surprise for me. Such a simple and modest person. Elmo was a fantastic Instrumentalist, while I knew nothing about it. Bjerrum always knew how to open the eyes of us. I learned a lot from Elmo and was involved in many important projects.

I met two persons at NGI and it seemed their friendly discussion was a great help. One is Prachit Chiruppapa from Chulalongkorn University, who talked a lot about AIT and Dr. Moh, and the other was David Nash, son of Kevin Nash.

8: We remember you were also teaching at Peradeniya in Sri Lanka

Yes, I returned to Sri Lanka in March 1970 and with great difficulty got a lecturer position in the University mainly through the most valued help of Thurai. It was very nice working with Thurai. We revised the Civil Engineering Curriculum and introduced a Masters Degree. I remember writing world wide to prominent people asking for their advice, their syllabus and also publications and possible old equipment. Among the people replied were Casagrande with his question papers in Harvard. Prof. Harry Seed from Berkeley, Prof. Gerry Leonards from Purdue, Prof. Bengt Broms from SGI and Prof. Dinesh Mohan from Central Building Research Institute India. I used my own money in mailing expenses. We got a large amount of publications. Kevin Nash was invited to give a lecture; Kevin also thought Ralph Peck would be more prestigious.

I remember sleeping in the Soils Lab to take readings in our triaxial apparatus around the clock. No automatic data logging. This work was published in the Tokyo Conference in 1977. I used to get AIT News Letter and was really impressed with their activities and their presence in an international scene. In one issue of the newsletter, I saw advertisements for opening Geotechnical Engineering. I applied for it. Nothing was happening for a year or so, all of a sudden, there was an interest and a letter from Dr. Moh. I remember Ted Brand visiting us as well. Dr. Moh made an offer in May 1972 as an Assistant Professor with a salary of about 800 Dollars per month. I accepted it; even though I was enjoying my work at Peradeniya.

9: Was your movement to AIT was a turning point, Prof. Bala?

Yes Ikuo it was. Dr. Moh was a remarkable and tough administrator. Also very kind. I had full support from him. My early Colleagues were Ted Brand, Peter Brenner and Prinya Nutalaya. I am sure you know all about them.

At AIT, Dr. Moh asked me to become the Secretary General of the Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society (SEAGS). There you are, I became and as the SG since I retired in July 2001. Through SEAGS, I was very much involved in ISSMGE and initially Kevin Nash.

10: How was AIT in terms of Research?

One of the memorable moments of Prof. Bala at AIT

Oh, Dr. Moh must really be very proud of his contributions to AIT. He was only given an Honorary Doctorate Degree. The research and teaching facilities were excellent. We had about 300 hours of lectures to our Masters Students. Most of them ended up doing Doctoral studies in USA, Japan, Canada and other countries. Also many became excellent engineers here in Australia, USA, Canada and Asia. We later recruited Dennes Bergado and Sarvesh Chandra. Dennes had a remarkable career. Even Indraratna had his first appointment with us, before he moved to Wollongong. AIT was involved in almost all the major projects in Bangkok and also in Thailand. Prinya is a fantastic Engineering Geologist. His work on Bangkok Subsidence will live forever. We had Yudhbir, Onodera, Akagi, Ohta, Yamada, yourself, Kuwano, Prinzl, Tomiolo, Rantucci, Noppodol and many others; all very able and prominent persons.

11: Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society & activities: what can you tell us?

Ikuo, AIT and Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society are both part of my life. I worked with SEAGS Presidents: Prof. Chin, Peter Lumb, Tan Swan Beng, Ted Brand, Ting Wen Hui, Prof. Lee, Ou Chin Der, Surachat, Dr. Ooi and John Li; all excellent people. The fifth Southeast Asian Conference had Nordi Morgenstern, Prof. Chin, Dr. Arthur Penman and Dr. Ian Donald as guest lecturers. Also, the back to back, International Symposium on Soft Clays arranged by Ted Brand and Peter Brenner was a huge success with Nils Flodin, Bengt Broms, Harry Poulos, Mike Duncan, Andresen Elmo Dibiagio, Peter Wroth, Dick Parry and many others.

Also, the Ninth Southeast Asian Regional Conference was held in 1987.

We had Asian Regional Conferences in Singapore in 1979 and in Bangkok in 1991. These were indeed some of the finest conferences we had. Always with international participation >> Read more

General Committee of South Eastern Asian Geotechnical Society during the 9th SEAGC in Bangkok (1987)

Group photo during the 9th Asian Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering in Bangkok (1991)

• Glimpses of GEOTECH-Year 2000