18
Geotechnical News March 2011
CGS NEWS
President-Elect Objectives
Nomination Statement of
Richard J. Bathurst
I am honoured to be selected by
the Nominating Committee of the
Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS)
as our Society’s President-Elect in
2012. I accept this nomination and
if elected look forward to serving the
Society for a two-year term as President
commencing January 2013.
I have been a member of the Ca-
nadian Geotechnical Society for more
than 30 years and an active participant.
These activities include Vice-Presi-
dent, Technical (2000-2002), Chair -
Geosynthetics Division (1998-2000)
and editor of the geosynthetics chapter
in the 3
rd
and 4
th
editions of the Canadi-
an Foundation Engineering Manual. I
have received the A.G. Stermac Award
of the CGS on three separate occasions
for my service to the Society and the
CGS Geosynthetics Division Award
in 2002. In addition, I have served on
the organizing committee of one of our
annual CGS conferences, on the CGS
Geotechnical Research Board and am
currently Chair of the Task Force on
CGS Membership. I have delivered
1-day short courses on geosynthetics
at the last three CGS annual confer-
ences. Examples of my volunteer ser-
vices to other learned societies include
Vice President and then President of
the International Geosynthetics Soci-
ety (IGS) (1998-2002), President of
the North American Geosynthetics So-
ciety (NAGS) (1997-1998), IGS News
Editor (1990-1994) and EIC Treasurer
(2003-2005).
I started my professional career as a
geotechnical engineer with Golder As-
sociates for three years and then moved
to the Royal Military College (RMC)
in 1980 to teach and complete a Ph.D.
at Queen’s University in soil mechan-
ics (1985). I am currently a Professor
of Civil Engineering at RMC and hold
a cross-appointment at Professor rank
at Queen’s where I am a member of the
GeoEngineering Centre at Queen’s-
RMC. During my academic career my
research has focused largely on earth
reinforcement technologies. I am cur-
rently editor of the journal Geosynthet-
ics International and serve on the edito-
rial board of four other journals.
I have been the recipient of the CGS
R.M. Quigley Award for best paper in
the Canadian Geotechnical Journal on
three occasions and runner-up once,
and recipient of the Casimir Gzowski
Medal of the Canadian Society for Civ-
il Engineering for the best paper in civil
engineering on two occasions and also
runner-up once. I have been an invited
keynote or special lecturer at confer-
ences on more than 20 occasions and
delivered the CGS Cross Country Lec-
ture Tour in 2003. I was elected Fellow
of the Engineering Institute of Canada
in 2001 and the Canadian Academy of
Engineering in 2004. While my pro-
fessional activities fall largely in the
realm of academia, I continue to work
with my industry colleagues through
consulting and ownership of a small
specialized laboratory testing services
company.
I believe that my volunteer contri-
butions to the CGS, IGS and NAGS
have given me valuable experience
to lead our Society for the 2013-2014
period. Fortunately for the next Pres-
ident-Elect, there is every expecta-
tion that the CGS will continue to be
a healthy, active society with a strong
financial footing. Nevertheless there
are challenges ahead. The level of ac-
tivity of the various CGS divisions has
been uneven in the past; this needs to
be carefully watched by the CGS ex-
ecutive and strategies explored to in-
crease the profile of some divisions.
As Chair of the Task Force Member-
ship Committee it is clear that we must
not be complacent in our activities to
encourage and engage recent graduate
engineers to participate in the Society.
Many local chapters encourage stu-
dents through seminars and student pa-
per presentations and the CGS recog-
nizes these students with awards given
at the annual CGS conference. Howev-
er, there is often a gap in awareness of
the CGS as these young people move
into industry. Our Society needs to do
a better job to maintain the attention of
these young people. A strategy to do
this is to tap senior engineers in these
companies to encourage these young
people to participate in local Society
activities and to promote our discipline
through membership and subscription
to the Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
One strength of our Society is the
strong history of collaboration and col-
legiality between academics and prac-
titioners. My experience with other so-
cieties is that broad representation has
not always been the case. Nevertheless,
I believe more can be done. For ex-
ample, there is a wealth of experience
by our geotechnical contractors and
consultants that is not communicated
in the journal literature where it can
be used by others. On the other hand,
there are many new academics looking
for data from practical case studies that
can assist them to advance the state-
of-practice and at the same time de-
velop a publication record. If elected, I
would like to explore the possibility of
a young academic mentoring program
with our contractors and consultants.
The Canadian Geotechnical Soci-
ety will continue to meet challenges in
the future. If elected, I look forward to
leading the CGS in meeting these chal-
lenges and ensuring the continued suc-
cess of our Society.
Richard J. Bathurst, P.Eng., Ph.D.,
FEIC, FCAE
Appel de Nominations –
President Designe de la SCG
Le prochain président élu de la Société
entrera en fonction le 1
er
janvier 2012.
La personne désignée pour ce poste
deviendra Président de la Société pour
les années 2013 et 2014. Le temps est
venu de démarrer le processus menant
à cette nomination qui sera dévoilée
lors de la 64
ème
Conférence canadienne
de géotechnique qui se tiendra à Toron-
to du 2 au 6 octobre 2011.
Conformément aux statuts de la
Société, un comité de nomination a
été formé en 2010 afin de proposer un
candidat au poste de Président élu. Le
comité était composé de
Michel Au-
bertin,
(Président),
Dennis Becker,
(ancien Président de la SCG),
Lee
Barbour, Murray Grabinsky
et
Paul
Chiasson
(membres de la SCG).
Le comité de nomination a sou-
mis le nom de
Richard J. Bathurst,
P.Eng,
comme candidat au poste de
Président élu en 2012 puis de Président
