ISSMGE President 940 Days Progress Report-9May2012

ISSMGE President 940 Days Progress Report-9May2012

Distinguished Colleagues, Dear Friends,

This is my thirty first progress report after 940 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 the upcoming webinar, Corporate Associates and Member Societies, and some outcome of the Board meeting in Nigeria,

Webinar: the next webinar will be presented by Eduardo Alonso (Spain) on 9July2012 at 14h00 UTC on the topic of “Unsaturated soils: basic concepts and applications”. Unsaturated soil mechanics is the general case of soil mechanics and this webinar promises to be another one not to miss. Remember that you can access all past webinars to view them on line if you wish.

Corporate Associates and Member Societies: Corporate Associates (CAs) are geotechnical companies (consultants, contractors, manufacturers) helping ISSMGE in its quest to provide technical service to practitioners. There are currently 33 CAs. Member Societies of course are the members of ISSMGE. We currently have 89 MS. My goal is to get to 50 CAs and 100 MS by the end of my term in Sept2013. I need your help to get there. I attached a map of the CAs and a map of the MS so you can see where work is needed. If you know of a company which is not a CA but should be in your opinion, please let me or the Vice President of your region know and we will help you with some useful background. The CAs first meeting will take place in early July 2012 in St Petersburg under the leadership of Michael Lisyuk. If you know a country next to yours which is not a MS please help them become part of our International Society. Again I can help you but so can your Vice President. Thanks for helping me on this.

Board meeting in Lagos, Nigeria. The ISSMGE Board met for 9 hours in Nigeria and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of our Nigerian friends lead by the Vice President himself, Samuel Ejezie. Some of the highlights of the meeting include:

1. We heard a review of the progress of each Board Level Committee (BLC). Marc Ballouz, Chair of the new Public Relations Committee (PRC) was there in person to give a presentation of his committee’s exciting and innovative ideas on how to improve the image of our profession. All BLCs are doing well, some needing a bit of a nudge and some being amazingly productive.

2. We got an update on the budget from Neil Taylor, including the ISSMGE Foundation. Both were found cautiously healthy.

3. We heard a report from Roger Frank on the progress of the Paris 2013 conference next year; it is really going to be a magnificent event that you cannot miss with 7 Honor Lectures plus the Terzaghi Oration and a strong participation of the Technical Committees. My deepest thanks to the Organizing Committee

4. We approved a new Honor Lecture, The ISSMGE Rowe Lecture, proposed by the TC on Environmental Geotechnics under the strong leadership of Mario Manassero.

5. We discussed the new upcoming web site prepared by Dimitris Zekkos and his group. More on this later.

6. We heard reports on the progress in each region by the Vice Presidents

7. We created a Task Force on Copyright agreements which will be lead by Rainer Massarsch (Sweden) and Bengt Fellenius (Canada). I am very bothered by the fact that geotechnical authors write articles for free, these articles are reviewed for free, then we turn over all copyrights to publishers who make money on our free labor, not only that but we have to ask them for permission and sometimes even pay money to reuse some of our own figures afterwards. Something is not right and I would like for ISSMGE to take a stand and have a clear position on this issue with possible action there from.

8. We discussed the application of two new Member Societies from Eastern Europe.

9. We handled two complaints sent to ISSMGE.

This is all for now. Until next month take care and continue your great work. In the mean time if I can be of some help, count on me.

Jean-Louis Briaud

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/