Reminiscences (continued)
BBB: Indeed – and I was entrusted to build up a new department, covering soil and rock mechanics, and later soil dynamics. The number of researchers and doctoral students increased and we were able to maintain close contacts with the international geotechnical community, in spite of the move of SGI from Stockholm. I am also very proud of the work done by many doctoral students at KTH.
KRM: During this period you were also very active in ISSMFE.
BBB: From 1977 until 1981, I served as Vice President of ISSMFE for Europe, with the 10th International Conference being held in Stockholm at the end of my term. One of the persons most strongly working for bringing the conference to Sweden was Prof. Hansbo, then president of the Swedish Geotechnical Society. The Swedish King opened the conference. Also, this was the first conference to introduce the idea of “home hospitality”, inviting conference participants as guests to members of the host country. This concept, which has now become a tradition, and many other aspects of the conference were quite successful.
KRM: And in 1985 you became president of ISSMFE.
BBB: I was elected in 1985 at the San Francisco conference, and this was quite an honor for a small country. At that time, I had already moved from Stockholm to Singapore, where I was given the task of starting up a geotechnical department at the newly founded Nanyang Technological Institute, NTI, which later became Nanyang Technological University, NTU. This was a remarkable period not only in Singapore but in the entire regions, with many interesting construction projects just starting up.
KRM: Also there you continued arranging geotechnical seminars and conferences, which attracted many participants from the region and abroad. During your career you consulted on many major construction projects.
BBB: I was fortunate to become involved in several very interesting projects. In Singapore, work on the MRT subway had just started, so I had the opportunity to get involved in some aspects of this complex project. One of my more spectacular project involvements was serving as consultant on the foundation of the Kuwait towers.
Conference in Singapore in honor of Prof. Bengt Broms, 1995
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