THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN NEW DELHI, INDIA IN 1994
India had long been keen about hosting the International Conference. The first invitation was filed as early as in 1954 after the 5th Conference. India’s application for the 12th ICSMFE was not successful by a minor margin. Thus, it was truly praised that India would host the 13th Conference.
Because of winter being the best season in India, the Conference was held on January 5-10 in 1994 and held at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi.
At the Opening Session, the Presidential addresswas delivered by Professor N.R. Morgenstern followed by a high-note Terzaghi Oration by Professor Victor B. de Mello. The Heritage Lecture was presented by Professor Ramamurthy with Mr. H.C. Verma as Chair. At the Opening Session, the Kevin Nash Gold Medal was awarded to Professor John Burland, U.K. for his great contributions to the ideals and goals of ISSMFE.
technical program consisted of five plenary sessions and twelve parallel sessions held in three groups of four concurrent sessions. The traditional subjects, Soil Properties, Foundations, Retaining Structures, Embankment Dams, were the themes of the Main Sessions. A new subject area first addressed in the Main Session was Natural Hazards. The topics of the parallel sessions featured several newly emerging areas for which ISSMFE was expected to take leading roles in the future perspectives. These may be classified as follows. 1) Non- technical subjects: Professional practice, Geotechnical education and Foundations of old monuments and structures, 2) New subject areas: Marine Geotechnology, and Geotextiles and Reinforced earth, and 3) New Technology: Computer Application and Instrumentation and Real-time Management.
The Conference in New Delhi was unique and very instructive. Participants were able to enjoy the deep-rooted historical cultures of India and the geotechnical engineering associated with a strong native flavor. In addition to sophisticated high-tech-based engineering, traditional methodologies were felt substantially in need for developing infrastructure in this part of the world.
Canadian Geotechnical Society had planned to organize an International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG) in Edmonton on July 11-15, 1994. On the other hand, there had been activities in ISSMFE which had been underway through TC5 on Environment Control and TC7 on Tailings Dams. President N. Morgenstern emphasized the importance of the subject matter and equal sharing of responsibility by the ISSMFE. Then, the conference in Edmonton was put in the framework of general undertakings of the ISSMFE and became the first of the ICEGs, which was followed by the subsequent conferences as summarized in Table 2 together with the events related with environment in ISSMFE.
In the Council Meeting, Professor M. Jamiolkowski was elected to President and he requested Dr. R. Parry to continue his role as Secretary General.
Editorial 13
India had long been enthusiastic about hosting the ICSMFE. In fact, Professor K.L. Rao was the second Vice- president of Asian Region and it was by his effort that the first Asian Regional Conference of ISSMFE came into existence in New Delhi as early as in 1960. Afterwards the 5th Asian Regional Conference was held in Bangalore (India) in 1975. Professor D. Mohan, whom we pay tribute to for having the 13 ICSMFE held in India, served as Vice-president for the period of 1977-1981.
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