Geotechnical News • June 2017
7
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Message from the President
As we march towards a well-deserved
warm summer, I would like to use
this President’s Message to refocus
our attention on a familiar topic that
is invariably of direct interest to the
CGS membership. As professionals,
it is important for us to continuously
care for the teaching and training of
qualified people and promote research
and innovation. The other aspect is the
need to generate and disseminate fac-
tual, impartial, and reliable informa-
tion for consumption by all concerned.
While academia - by way of the job
description - is contributing to these
fronts, the tremendous counterpart
role that industry has in this regard
cannot be overstated. I believe that
improving interactions and collabora-
tions between academia and industry
on a wider format is needed to support
this cause. It would be of value to
increase the participation of industry
personnel in teaching and training,
for example, by delivering guest
lectures in the university classrooms
and during site visits; reciprocally,
more opportunities should be cre-
ated for the academics to get exposed
to industry real-life problems and to
work on applied outcome research
and technology solutions. The power
of industry support to lever govern-
ment funding, and in turn, enhance the
industry investment multiplier with
respect to research is another fact that
needs to be kept in mind, and the list
of potential interactions can go on. I
believe that this is the right time for an
expanded and renewed conversation
on this topic, and the CGS can play a
vital role in facilitating and advancing
this dialogue through our annual CGS
Conference, meetings in local Sec-
tions, and other types of activity. The
Society’s strong reputation and healthy
financial stature provide an ideal
environment to develop and launch
new targeted initiatives in support of
these. Let us have a conversation on
this topic, and I invite you to engage
by writing to us at
Our
CGS team is ready to receive your
thoughts and ideas that will pave the
way moving forward.
Now, let me report on some other
important news. By the time you read
this article,
Dr. Vaughan Griffiths
,
Colorado School of Mines, will have
completed his
Cross Canada Lecture
Tour (CCLT)
. It is exciting to note
that the always well-attended CCLT
is becoming so popular amongst our
membership. In the last round, fifteen
of our Local Sections indicated that
they would like to host the CCLT,
leading to a case where for one of
the first time in our history, we were
not able to include some of our larger
Dharma Wijewickreme, President of
Canadian Geotechnical Society
