THE ISSMGE FROM 1936 TO 2011 (continued)
Chairman of the 15th ICSMFE, Professor E. Togrol did attend the 6th Montréal in 1965. Since then, he had been present in all the ICSMFEs, twelve times consecutively. This is an evidence of his self-recognition that Istanbul is the birth place of soil mechanics and he is destined to keep this asset as a guardian.
THE 16TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN OSAKA, JAPAN, 2005
W. V. Impe
The 16th ICSMGE was held on 12 – 16 September 2005, at Rihga Royal Hotel in Osaka, the second largest and old city in Japan.
The conference attendees reaching Osaka by plane had the opportunity to become acquainted with the recently completed new Osaka International Airport. This airport that opened in September 1994 is located offshore in Osaka Bay, but because of its unforeseen subsoil conditions, and its large settlement due to consolidation, the man-made island for the airport represents one of the most significant challenges of the geotechnical engineered constructions.
During the Opening Session, after the current President Professor W. Van Impe‘s address, Professor Harry Poulos was awarded the Kevin Nash Gold Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to our discipline particularly with respect to theory and practice in the field of foundation engineering. The Terzaghi Oration whose title was ―Associating with Advancing Insight‖ was presented by Professor F. Barends, from the Netherlands. Development of Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering was the title of the Heritage Lecture and covered issues of prominent interests for the host country. It was delivered by Professor I. Towhata.
H. Poulos
As always, the technical conference program consisted of five plenary sessions assisted by numerous technical sessions, see Tables 1.3 and 1.4, covering topics such as: properties of natural soils by in situ tests, computational modeling of large deformation, environmental geotechnics, offshore geotechnical engineering and pile foundations.
The appeal of the conference was largely enhanced by the newly introduced major project session, Practitioner-Academic Forum and International Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference. These new format of the Conference was due to the great efforts by the Chairman Professor N. Adachi and Secretary General Professor K. Kamon.
In the Council Meeting, Professor P. Seco e Pinto was elected to the next President and Dr. N. Taylor continued as Secretary General.
At the closing ceremony Professor Van Impe introduced to the audience the President elect, Professor Pedro Sêco e Pinto, from Portugal and handed over to him the wooden gavel, symbol of ISSMGE.
Editorial 16 It was delightful and heart-warming to be able to welcome to Osaka the esteemed leader of our profession, Professor R. B. Peck who travelled a long distance at an age of 93 and graced the Conference.
