Geotechnical News • March 2018
15
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
• de l’information sur les Tournées
de conférences transcanadiennes
du printemps et de l’automne de
la SCG;
• une adhésion à une ou à plusieurs
des sept divisions techniques de la
SCG et aux sociétés internation-
ales associées;
• une participation dans l’une des
20 sections locales de la SCG;
• une participation à l’un des sept co-
mités techniques de la SCG;
• une participation dans LA Société
pour tous les professionnels en
géotechnique canadiens.
Nous souhaitons la bienvenue à tous
les nouveaux membres ainsi qu’à ceux
qui renouvellent leur adhésion et som-
mes impatients de vous voir participer
en 2018. Nous vous encourageons
également à recommander la SCG à
un ami ou à un collègue. Nous con-
tinuons à améliorer les avantages que
la SCG offre à notre profession.
Message from ISSMGE
Vice-President
For North America
Timothy Newson
Whilst many of you may be aware of
the
International Society for Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engi-
neering (ISSMGE)
, you are probably
less well acquainted with the day
to day activities of the Society. The
ISSMGE is a professional body that
represents the interests and activities
of global engineers, academics and
contractors that actively participate in
geotechnical engineering. The Society
has its roots in the First International
Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering that was held
in Harvard in 1936. This organization
now provides a focus for professional
practice and leadership for 90 national
societies and around 20,000 individual
members around the world. I recently
became the Vice-President for North
America for the ISSMGE for a four-
year period. My mandate is to sup-
port the activities of the three North
American geotechnical organizations
(
Canadian Geotechnical Society
,
Geo-Institute of the American Soci-
ety of Civil Engineers
and
Sociedad
Mexicana de Ingeniería Geotécnica)
and I am really looking forward to
serving my region in this capacity. I
would like to take this opportunity to
tell you a little more about the society
and my aims for the next four years.
I encourage you to visit the ISSMGE
website
), where
many of the achievements of the
society are showcased. This provides
the membership with information on
the activities related to global geo-
technical practice, including webinars,
lectures and articles. The Society is
very actively involved in international
conferences, running and supporting
specialist and larger regional confer-
ences, such as the upcoming XVI
Pan-American ISSMGE conference in
Cancun in 2019. Every four years the
ISSMGE also organizes the pre-emi-
nent International Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engi-
neering (ICSMGE) that many of the
world’s geotechnical engineers attend.
This was last held in Seoul in Septem-
ber 2017 and the next conference is in
Sydney in 2021. A recent major initia-
tive of the ISSMGE is the implemen-
tation of an open access policy and the
online library has all of the ICSMGE
proceedings archived from 1936 and
includes more than 10,000 conference
papers that are directly available to
visitors of the website.
Over 1000 individual members are
also directly involved in society
activities through membership of one
of the many international Technical
Committees. Each technical commit-
tee is concerned with a specialist area
of geotechnics, and this work leads to
conferences, symposia and workshops.
The society disseminates the output
of these TCs through various publica-
tions and reports. A bimonthly elec-
tronic publication called the ‘ISSMGE
Bulletin’ outlines ISSMGE news and
events. The Society is also prominent
on social media with a presence on
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the
Geoworld online platform. There is
now even an ISSMGE app available
for iOS devices.
During my four-year term, I would like
to:
• Enhance the cooperation between
our three North American societ-
ies (CGS, GI-ASCE and SMIG)
and encourage regular exchange of
technical information and views;
• Help the societies and committees
organizing the next ISSMGE Pan-
American Conference in Cancun
(2019) and the speciality confer-
ences within the region;
• Assist the functions of the technical
committees in our region, with an
emphasis on linking research and
practice, and developing profes-
sional geotechnical resources;
• Support and foster cross-border
initiatives that will lead to the
improvement of technical compe-
tence and excellence of geotechni-
cal engineers;
• Promote the attendance of young
engineers and students at our
regional ISSMGE events and
develop other mechanisms to fa-
cilitate their interaction with their
peers and mentors within academia
and industry;
• Strengthen the relationships and
cooperation of the ISSMGE North
America region with the ISSMGE
South America region for the mu-
tual benefit of the Americas.
Please explore the ISSMGE website to
get a feel for what the society offers to
