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Geotechnical News • December 2017
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
années ce qui reflète l’étendue de ses
intérêts de recherche.
En plus de ses nombreux accom-
plissements académique, Doug a fait
des contributions importantes afin
d’encourager le transfert d’idées et de
connaissances entre les ingénieurs et
les géoscientifiques universitaire, ceux
en industrie, et les experts-conseils.
Doug has contributed to the transfer of
ideas and knowledge by offering pro-
fessional development workshops to
practitioners, providing external expert
reviews on large consulting projects,
and leading joint research projects
with mining companies and consulting
firms. He has also been the co-chair
of three very successful conferences
over the last 10 years. These included
the 2007 Canada-US Rock Mechan-
ics Symposium, 2011 International
Symposium on Rock Slope Stability in
Open Pit Mining, and Civil Engineer-
ing, 1st International Conference on
Discrete Fracture Network Engineering
(DFNE) in 2014. The 2014 DFNE con-
ference is a great example of integrat-
ing academics and practitioners from
a wide range of specialties (petroleum,
mining, infrastructure, and geohazards)
and providing them with a forum to
present their work and exchange ideas.
Pour réaliser tous ces accomplisse-
ments, il faut bien sûr être un travail-
lant infatigable mais aussi avoir une
curiosité insatiable et une grande
imagination. Doug is constantly look-
ing at new techniques and approaches
to tackle fundamental and applied
problems in engineering geology and
geotechnical engineering. As an exam-
ple of his insatiable curiosity, Doug
has recently started to investigate the
additional insights that radar, thermal,
and hyperspectral imagery can bring
to the remote sensing tools used for
characterising rock outcrops in natural
slopes, open pits, and underground
mines. Keeping at the forefront of
integrating technology into science and
engineering, he has also recently been
involved in projects investigating ways
to harness virtual reality applications to
display and analyze multiple complex
three-dimensional engineering geology
and geotechnical engineering datasets.
Sans plus attendre, veuillez-vous join-
dre à moi pour accueillir et féliciter le
médaillé R.F. Legget de 2017: Without
further ado, please join me in welcom-
ing and congratulating the recipient of
the 2017 Legget Medal Award: Profes-
sor Doug Stead.
Marc-André Brideau
October 4, 2017
2017 R.F. Legget Medal Award Acceptance Speech
Professor Doug Stead -
Simon Fraser University
Thank you, Marc-Andre, for your very
kind introduction. Mesdames et mes-
sieurs, je suis très honoré de recevoir
la médaille Legget pour deux mille
dix-Sept. It is a very great honour for
me to be selected as the recipient of
the 2017 Legget Medal. I would first
like to thank those who nominated me,
the Canadian Geotechnical Society
Committee for selecting me, the Cana-
dian Foundation for Geotechnique and
finally the GeoOttawa Local Organis-
ing Committee for making it possible
for me to receive the medal in person.
Looking through the 47 previous
recipients of the Leggett Award since
1970 I am particularly honored and
humbled to have been selected.
It was in the early 1970’s when I was
first introduced to the field of engi-
neering geology during undergraduate
lectures by
Dr. F.G. Blyth
, author of
the text “
Geology for Engineers
”. In
my undergraduate year at the Univer-
sity of Exeter were
David Wood
and
Len Murray
both of whom were to
become highly Canadian consultants.
I recall my first exposure to landslides
through case studies such as the Frank
Slide which I have been very fortu-
nate to work on during my career. In
1975-6, I was accepted by
Dr. Alistair
Lumsden
, into the MSc. Engineering
Geology and Geotechnics at Leeds
University – looking back, without
doubt, the most important opportunity
to arise in my career. I remember read-
ing Dr. Legget’s “
Cities and Geology
”
at the start of this course and knowing
then that I had made the right career
choice.
My MSc. dissertation was my first
real introduction to Canadian geo-
technical engineering focussing on a
comparison between Canadian and
Scandinavian quickclays under the
supervision of
Dr. Ian Smalley
. On
graduation, my wife Sally and I left
for Zambia where I worked for two
years as an open pit geotechnical engi-
neer at Nchanga open pit, Chingola.
This was a particularly important time
in my career when I saw through the
example of several outstanding mine
consultants the potential synergies
Doug Stead
