ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 3 Issue 2 June 2009

Presidential Candidates

Vote for the election of new President of ISSMGE during the period 2009 – 2013 will be taken at the ISSMGE Council Meeting, which will be held at Alexandria, Egypt on October 4, 2009. The following messages have been received from the two nominees as Presidential candidates: Professor Jean-Louis Briaud and Professor Waldemar Hachich.

Professor Jean-Louis Briaud

Dear Colleagues,

I was born and educated in France, got my higher degrees in Canada, and have been a Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Texas A&M University in the USA since then. I was President of the Association of Geotechnical Professors (USUCGER) in the USA from 2003 to 2005. I am President of the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) from 2008 to 2009. The Geo-Institute has 11,000 members from the USA and many other countries. I have managed large research projects, am active in consulting, and enjoy all topics in geotechnical engineering. I play a lot of tennis, a bit of piano, and used to play rugby and soccer. I have been fortunate to win many awards. the most prestigious being the ASCE Ralph Peck Lecture from the USA and the CGS Geoffrey Meyerhof Award from Canada. I believe that ISSMGE is our international family and that it is our duty to support it and to be active in it. Talking about family, Janet is my wife, Natalie and Patrick are my children.

As soon as I became a candidate for the position of President of ISSMGE, I became a “citizen” of 84 countries. As a “citizen” of your country, I am interested in helping you with any request you have for changes in ISSMGE. The overarching idea of my candidacy is to engage the members in participating in ISSMGE and shaping its future. I will listen to your requests and try to implement them as much as possible. In the meantime, I propose to work on the following issues.

1. Membership: There are about 250 countries in the world and 84 are members of ISSMGE. We need to reach out and increase our membership. We also need to take care of countries which have difficulties.
2. Conferences: we need to focus on quality and affordability.
3. Journals: we need to support our new electronic International Journal of Geo-Engineering Case Histories. It is a high quality free Journal available to everyone in the world on the internet.
4. Technical Committees. Technical Committees should be renewed automatically every four years. New committees should be encouraged. All TCs must be active and their leadership well distributed geographically.
5. Continuing Education: webinars are the way to the future. They consist of listening to the speaker on your telephone while watching the slides on your computer screen through an internet connection.
6. Dues. Dues are fine as they are.

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Professor Waldemar Hachich

Dear friends of the ISSMGE,

No need to repeat here the points made in the messages you received from ABMS or from myself. I shall keep in direct contact with you till Alexandria. I also invite you to keep visiting regularly www.abms.com.br, as new information and plans continue to be posted there.

You are not faced with a superficial decision between countries or regions, but a fundamental decision about who is better prepared to face the challenge of remodeling the relationship between the ISSMGE and its individual members, while strengthening the ties with Member Societies, common interest societies (IGS, IACMAG, iNEER, to name a few others than ISRM, IAEG and FIGS), and the society at large.

I can offer the experience of four dedicated years in the ISSMGE Board, active participation in five ISSMGE Council meetings (including the 2003 meeting, when my intervention has been instrumental in preventing the approval of a quite unfair fee structure proposed by the Board), six years as President and Vice-President of ABMS, one of the largest and most active Member Societies, four years as President of its largest chapter and over 20 years as one of the 50+ elected members of the ABMS Council, active membership in the organising committees of innumerable conferences, including three regional and two international ones.

Recognition of my productive dedication to voluntary work prompted some officers of the previous administration of the ISSMGE to encourage me to run for the office of Vice-President for South America. I do not, by any means, regret my decision to accept the challenge. The current Board of the ISSMGE generously offered me the means to better serve the geotechnical community.

I have worked hard on proposals to improve our Statutes and By-Laws, on guidelines for our ISSMGE International Seminars, on specifications to upgrade our website and make it more useful (do visit the ISSMGE Knowledge Network!). I have co-organised five ISSMGE International Seminars and helped in the process of affiliation of three new Member Societies (Cuba, El Salvador and Dominican Republic).

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