Professor Nilmar Janbu (1921 – 2013)

from ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 7, Issue 4 (p.65)

OBITUARY

Professor Nilmar Janbu (1921 – 2013)

Professor Nilmar JanbuNilmar Janbu, Emeritus Professor of geotechnical engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, passed away peacefully in Trondheim, Norway on 4 January 2013, at the age of 91 years.

Everybody in the geotechnical family knows about his enthusiastic contributions to soil mechanics; no need to mention his studies on slope stability problem. Furthermore, his friendly and diligent personality has been attracting many people all over the world. The Editor of the ISSMGE Bulletin still remembers Prof. Janbu’s lecture on the mechanism of quick clay that was delivered during the 7th Landslide Symposium in Trondheim, 1996. He mixed salt with liquefied quick clay and surprised the participants by showing the recovery of the rigidity of the clay; see the photograph to the right. His memory will be eternally with us whenever slope stability and quick clay are discussed.

More detailed obituary is available in the Geotechnique Journal, Vol. 63, Issue 10;
http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/issue/geot/63/10.

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