ISSMGE President 1000 Days Progress Report-9July2012

ISSMGE President 1000 Days Progress Report-9July2012

Distinguished Colleagues, Dear Friends,

This is my thirty third progress report after 1000 days as your President. Note that previous reports are on the ISSMGE web site (http://www.issmge.org/) under “From the President” if you need them. In this report, I would like to talk to you about upcoming webinars, copyrights for our publications, our new web site, and the 15July2012 ISSMGE Board meeting in Australia.

Webinar: Tomorrow Monday 9July2012 at 3:00 pm, GMT Summer Time (London, GMT+01:00) Eduardo Alonso presents a wonderful webinar on Unsaturated Soils: Basic Concepts and Applications. Do not miss this unique chance to learn from one of the best in the world. It is free and you can register on line at https://issmge.webex.com/issmge/k2/j.php?ED=9483317&UID=50198427&HMAC=66368495394d8d4bb08116d00d58771c6ee3a65e&RT=MiMyMQ%3D%3D&FM=1

If you need further help, contact my assistant, Theresa Taeger, at ttaeger@civilmail.tamu.edu. The nest webinar will be presented by Frank Rausche on pile driving analysis on 18 Sept 2012 followed by Ikuo Towhata on earthquake geotechnical engineering.

Copyrights and fairness: an ISSMGE Task Force has been set up to look into this broad issue. It is lead by Rainer Massarsch in Sweden with the help of the Swedish society and Bengt Fellenius in Canada. Part of the issue is as follows. Many of us write engineering articles which we submit for free to publishers, these articles are reviewed by volunteers who also work for free, then we release the copyrights to the publisher who turns around and makes money by selling this work. I don’t know about you but I don’t think that this is fair. When we write books we get something like 15% royalties. I think that we should get 15% royalty on our article publications as well. What do you think?

New web site: a few months ago we contracted with Geoengineer.org to develop our web site so it would have new capabilities consistent with current needs. The new web site is already up and running. If you visit it (http://www.issmge.org) you will see no change because we aimed at a smooth transition but the infrastructure is much more powerful and will allow us to serve you better. Dimitris Zekkos is overseeing this effort and I will have a short report on new capabilities in an upcoming progress report. If you have any thoughts or ideas to improve our web site please submit them for consideration.

Board meeting: The next ISSMGE Board meeting is in Melbourne, Australia on 15July2012. I attach the agenda of this meeting for your information. Let me know if you have some pressing issue that you wish to see the Board address on 15July2012.

Best wishes,

Jean-Louis BRIAUD, PhD, PE

President of ISSMGE

International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

Professor and Holder of the Buchanan Chair

Zachry Dpt of Civil Engineering

Texas A&M University

College Station, TX 77843-3136, USA

Tel: 979-8453795

Cell: 979-7771692

Fax: 979-8456554

Email: briaud@tamu.edu

URL: http://ceprofs.tamu.edu/briaud/