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Geotechnical News • December 2014
27
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
problems arose, specialist consul-
tants would arrive on site, such as
Dr. Arthur Casagrande. I was so
impressed by their contribution that
it spurred my interest in obtaining a
higher degree in geotechnical engi-
neering. As such, I obtained a MASc
degree in 1965 and then a PhD degree
in 1967, both from the University of
British Columbia.
At this time, my interest became
numerical modelling of soil liquefac-
tion for the analysis and design of
earth structures. The stress-strain and
strength of the soil are a key aspect in
such analyses.
In 1967, I joined the Department
of Civil Engineering as Assistant
Professor. At that time, my colleague
Dr. Richard Campanella was in the
process of developing a world class
soils laboratory to test monotonic and
cyclic loading of sands and clay. Drs.
Yogi Vaid and Dharma Wijewickreme
further developed the soils labora-
tory. The lab equipment in addition
to the lab tests provided me with the
stress-strain behaviour data which I
used to produce my numerical model
for analysis.
In 1976-1977 I spent a sabbatical year
at the University of Berkeley, Califor-
nia, working with Dr. Mike Duncan
on nonlinear analysis of long span
soil metal arches. A number of these
structures had failed during construc-
tion and there was a need to know the
reason why these were failing.
In 1986, I spent three months at the
University of Sydney, Australia, and
learned much about plasticity from
Dr. John Booker (who passed away
unexpectedly in 1998). I came to
realize that a simple plasticity model
could capture much of the stress-
strain response found in the laboratory
monotonic and cyclic tests.
In early 2000, Dr. Ryan Phillips and I
held an NSERC Strategic Grant with
industry partners. We were to exam-
ine seismic liquefaction response of
Fraser River sand from cyclic direct
simple shear (DSS) tests conducted
in the UBC Soils Laboratory. Centri-
fuge tests that were conducted on the
same sand were carried out at C-Core,
Newfoundland. Fraser River sand was
trucked from Vancouver to C-Core.
Numerical models were first calibrated
from the DSS tests and used to predict
the response of the dynamic centrifuge
tests. The predicted responses from
the numerical analyses were generally
in good agreement with the measured
responses from the dynamic centrifuge
tests.
In addition to being a faculty member
at the University of British Colum-
bia for many years, I have had the
opportunity to be involved on a wide
range of projects, including bridges,
tunnels, dams, including mine-waste
dams both in Canada and many others
parts of the world. All these projects
involved the stress-strain and strength
relations of the soil under monotonic
and cyclic loading.
During my tenure as Professor of
Geotechnical Engineering at UBC I
had the privilege of supervising many
exceptional graduate students who
pursued research in state-of-the-art
numerical analyses and modelling
liquefaction effects on soil structures
against seismic loading. Two of these
outstanding students, Drs. Ernie Naes-
gaard and Mike Beaty continued in
this area after graduation and further
developed the model (UBCSAND).
This model continues to evolve and is
recognized and used world-wide.
Canada has a combination of challeng-
ing soil and seismic conditions which
has required great expertise from our
area of geotechnical engineering. I
have worked with engineers from
many countries, but in my view our
group in Canada is among the very
best. It is a pleasure to work with such
high quality professionals, and to have
been selected from this group for this
medal is truly an honour.
I also want to thank my wife, Jane,
whose love and support have sustained
me over the years.
In conclusion, I want to again say how
grateful I am to receive this award.
Thank you very much.
L to R: Richard Bathurst, Ernest Naesgaard accepting for Dr. Peter Byrne,
Dennis Becker.