Taludes

ISSMGE Bulletin
Volume 6, Issue 1 February 2012

International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
Message to ISSMGE Members Professor Michael C R Davies, Vice President for Australasia and First Vice President ISSMGE
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1 6 8 Message to ISSMGE Members President Reports Activity Report from Member Society It is a pleasure, through this article in theBulletin, to be able to address members of the ISSMGE in order to provide some insight into the activities of the Australasia region of the ISSMGE. In terms of the number of member societies Australasia is the smallest of the six ISSMGE regions. However, if the numbers of individual members in the two societies that constitute the region are considered, the region is the fourth largest; with Australiaand New Zealand having the fourth and eleventh largest number, respectively, of ISSMGE members of the 87 member societies. In his Message to ISSMGE Members, published in this bulletin last year1, Professor Roberto Terzariol, Vice President for South America, presented an analysis of the ratio of numbers of ISSMGE members in each society to the number of millions of inhabitants of each country.From this analysis he demonstrated that the median value of this ratio for the Australasia region - at 64 ISSMGE members per million inhabitants - was some three times greater than that of the region with the next highest ratio, which was Europe with a median of 20. This analysis indicates that, relative to the other ISSMGE regions, in terms of attracting members to the ISSMGE the two societies inthe Australasia region have been highly successful. Whilst I am sure that the strength of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS) and the New Zealand Geotechnical Society (NZGS) has been the result of the hard work and enthusiasm of the officers and members of the two societies over many years, it is also a reflection of the importance for the society in Australia and New Zealand of there beinggood practice in geotechnical engineering. To some extent the importance of geotechnical engineering in both Australia and New Zealand is for similar reasons but there are specific national conditions that prevail. For example, in both countries there is a requirement to deal with natural hazards that have large scale detrimental effects on society. However, whilst slope stability presentsgeotechnical challenges to engineers on both sides of the Tasman Sea – which separates the two countries – New Zealand is located at the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates and has, therefore, a much higher risk of major earthquake hazards than Australia, which is not
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10 Technical Article 19 Conference Report-1 23 Conference Report-2 27 Upcoming Conference-1 29 UpcomingConference-2

E DI TO RIA L B OA RD
Jean-Louis Briaud Ikuo Towhata Neil Taylor Pedro Sêco e Pinto Pongsakorn Punrattanasin Deepankar Choudhury Imen Said Erdin Ibraim Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn Susumu Nakajima Fernando Schnaid

ISSMGE Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 2, April 2011

ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 6, Issue 1
Message to ISSMGE Members (Continued)

Page 2

Professor Michael C R Davies, VicePresident for Australasia
INSIDE THIS ISSUE (CONTINUED)
34 Announcement-1 35 Announcement-2 36 Call for Journal Paper 37 News 38 Obituary 39 New Books 40 Event Diary 46 Corporate Associates 49 Foundation Donors 51 From the Editor Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS)2 The AGS is the largest Technical Society within Engineer’s Australia. Its membership currently stands at 1381 and of these members 873(63%) are affiliated to ISSMGE. In addition, the society currently has 45 corporate members that represent a wide range of consulting and contracting organisations 3 . The society is managed by a National Committee and Sam Mackenzie was elected recently as Chair of the AGS National Committee. Dr Mark Jaksa serves on the National Committee as AGS Liaison Officer for the ISSMGE. The AGS is...