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Geotechnical News • December 2016
WASTE GEOTECHNICS
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
GSE and to geotechnical or geoenvi-
ronmental engineering in the Edmon-
ton area. Stan Thomson was the first
recipient of this award and the award
was subsequently renamed in 1999
in his honour as the
In 2008, the GSE numbered
him among 8 Leaders in Geotechni-
cal Engineering in the Province. He
was also the Engineering Institute of
Canada’s CPR Medallist in 1990.
After retiring from the Department of
Civil Engineering at the University of
Alberta in 1984, he kept busy volun-
teering at a local school, helping teach
students how to create beautiful wood-
working projects. He was responsible
for creating the ceremonial wooden
gavel and storage case used at every
GSE Annual General Meeting, as well
as the birch box that now transports
the CGS conference bell and banner
from conference to conference. Both
are small but enduring legacies created
by Stan for the geotechnical commu-
nity.
Stan was predeceased by his wife (of
70 years), Doreen, and his elder son.
He is survived by three daughters and
a son, nine grandchildren and eight
great-grandchildren.
Editor
Don Lewycky, P.Eng.
Edmonton, AB
Email:
2016 R.F. Legget Medal Award - le médaillé R.F. Legget 2016
Awarded to Richard J. Bathurst
Introduction of 2016 R.F. Legget
Medal Winner
by Professor Kerry Rowe -
Queen’s University
I am delighted to have the privilege of
introducing this year’s Legget medal-
ist, my very good friend, Dr. Richard
J. Bathurst.
Richard has had an outstanding career
in research, engineering practice, and
service to the geotechnical community.
From the research perspective, Dr.
Bathurst’s work has crossed a wide
range of topics starting with seminal
work in the field of particle mechanics
that continues to be highly cited after
25 years. He has worked in the areas
of railway ballast and track dynamics,
seismic design, analysis and numerical
modelling of soil structures, pave-
ments, unsaturated soil-geotextile
behaviour, constitutive modelling of
geosynthetic soil reinforcement mate-
rials, and more recently probabilistic
analysis of reinforced and unrein-
forced soil structures. His discovery
of an invisible granular soil led to its
application to visually observe for the
first time the insitu interaction between
soil and a geogrid under operational
conditions and now his invisible soil is
being adopted by many other research-
ers for a range of applications. But
he probably most widely known for
his world leadership in the area of the
design, analysis and performance of
reinforced soil wall structures.
Richard played a major role in
developing understanding of how
these complex structures behave and
producing practical but rational design
methods. The proof of his accomplish-
ments can be measured by the number
of national and international awards.
A small sampling includes the CGS’s
Meyerhof Award and Geosynthetics
Division Award, and the R.M. Quigley
Award on four occasions. He has also
won the International Geosynthet-
ics Society (IGS) highest award for
specific technical contributions on
three separate occasions. He was the
most recent recipient of the Giroud
Lecture of the IGS (its highest award
for career technical contributions).
In terms of service to the geotechnical
community, he has been the editor of
the highly regarded journal Geosyn-
thetics International since 1995 and
currently serves on the editorial board
of seven other journals and one trade
magazine. He was co-chair of the 4th
Pan American Geosynthetics Confer-
ence (GeoAmericas) in April.
Dr. Bathurst’s technical contributions
include service on committee’s devel-
oping the Load and Resistance Factor
Design approach for reinforced soil
walls for the American Association
of State Highway and Transportation
Officials (AASHTO), the Canadian
Highway Bridge Design Code, and the
National Building Code of Canada.
He is the technical lead for a guidance
document on reinforced soil walls
for the Transportation Association of
Canada. He is the editor of the next
edition of the Canadian Foundation
Engineering Manual. He has served
terms as President of the North Ameri-
can Geosynthetics Society the Interna-
tional Geosynthetics Society, and the
Canadian Geotechnical Society and is
currently President of the Engineering
Institute of Canada.
In addition, he has acted as a consul-
tant to many of the major players in
the geotechnical fraternity and devel-
oped strong collaborative research ties
with colleagues in the USA, Japan
and Europe. His research activities
have involved projects in the Canadian
Arctic and from coast to coast.
Please join me in congratulating the
winner of the 2016 Legget Medal, Dr.
Richard Bathurst.
Kerry Rowe
October 3, 2016
