14
Geotechnical News • June 2012
GEO-INSTITUTE NEWS
land, CA. His name was selected from
the many Congress registrants who
registered by January 20, 2012.
Robertson has more than 30 years
experience as an educator, researcher,
consultant and practitioner special-
izing in the areas of in-situ testing of
soils, earthquake design of geotechni-
cal structures, soil liquefaction, pile
design and soil structure interac-
tion. He is nationally and interna-
tionally recognized as an expert in
the areas of in-situ testing and soil
liquefaction. He was the principal
investigator of the Canadian Lique-
faction Experiment (CANLEX) from
1993 - 2000, a $1.8 million col-
laborative project between industry,
universities, and consulting engineers
to study the characterization of sand
for liquefaction analysis. Dr. Robert-
son has authored or co-authored 249
publications.
He was an early shareholder in Con-
eTec Investigations Ltd. (1984-2004),
an in-situ testing company specializing
in the Cone Penetration Test (CPT).
He has also sat on the Boards of sev-
eral private and not-for-profit organi-
zations. He also lectures on leadership
and management and maintains an
active research program in geotechni-
cal engineering.
In his role as Associate Vice President
(Research/Industry) at the University
of Alberta (1999 – 2005), Dr. Rob-
ertson was responsible for leadership
in the transfer of technology to the
community.
Members in Memoriam
Professor Robert V. Whitman
Professor Robert V. Whitman S.M.
’49, Sc.D. ’51, a world-renowned
geotechnical engineer and expert on
earthquakes in MIT’s Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineer-
ing (CEE), died February 25 at age
84. With the exception of two years
spent in military service, he remained
at CEE from 1948 -1993 where he
remained an active member of the
MIT community and eventually as a
professor emeritus.
“Bob was a tremendous role model
as a faculty member, renowned for his
ability to clarify the complexities of
soil mechanics and earthquake engi-
neering, and for his commitment to
serve society at large through leader-
ship in professional organizations,”
said CEE’s department head, Professor
Andrew Whittle.
He majored in civil engineering at
Swarthmore College with a concen-
tration in structures and later studied
structural dynamics with Professor
Charles Norris at MIT. He worked
with Professor Donald Taylor on
the effects of nuclear explosives on
