ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 4 Issue 1 March 2010

Message to ISSMGE from the President of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM)

John A. Hudson
Emeritus Professor
Department of Earth Science and Engineering
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
London, UK

Dear Colleagues in the ISSMGE There is currently a move to consider interaction between the international Societies concerned with soils and rocks, and so I am delighted to have been invited to contribute a message to you via the ISSMGE Bulletin. In fact, this is an ideal opportunity to ponder on the similarities and differences between our respective Societies and subjects and to consider some pertinent questions. There is less soil than rock in the world, so why is the ISSMGE larger than the ISRM? Although there are many subjects common to analysis methods for soils and rocks, e.g. the theory of elasticity, why are the engineering design approaches so different? Are the mechanisms of soil and rock failure different? Why is there so little interaction between researchers or practitioners in soil mechanics and rock mechanics? Why are there so few people fluent in the techniques of both soil and rock mechanics? In this message, I shall briefly explore these questions.

Why is the ISSMGE larger than the ISRM?

In 2009, the statistics of the two Societies were as listed in Table 1.

Read more >>

Download ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 4 Issue 1 March 2010
PDF format