20
Geotechnical News • March 2018
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
2017 CGS Awards - Thomas Roy
Award
Dr. Erik Eberhardt
In this and future issues of
Geotech-
nical News,
the 2017 CGS award
recipients are being featured. In this
issue,
Dr. Erik Eberhardt
, winner of
the
2017 Thomas Roy Award
of the
CGS’s Engineering Geology Division,
is highlighted.
Established in 1982, this award recog-
nizes an individual for their excellence
in the field of engineering geology, or
to a group of individuals for a paper
that makes a significant contribution to
the advancement of engineering geol-
ogy in Canada.
Erik’s citation reads: “The body of
work for the University of British
Columbia Director of Geological
Engineering,
Erik Eberhardt
, hardly
needs introduction. His work on the
recognition, prediction and mitigation
of complex rock engineering prob-
lems, unexpected rock mass responses
and failures remains at the top of the
Geological Engineering field. With a
proven track record of academic and
professional achievement with an
emphasis on risk assessment, Dr Eber-
hardt remains one of the most impor-
tant leaders in Geological Engineering
in Canada and internationally.
His leadership in this field is also
distinguished by his many contribu-
tions as a researcher, practitioner and
teacher with respect to both surface
and underground rock engineering
problems. These topics include rock
slope failures in the form of massive
rockslides, as well as engineered rock
slopes associated with open pit mine
slopes. Other significant research
areas of Dr. Eberhardt’s includes tun-
nelling, underground mining, petro-
leum geomechanics and nuclear waste
disposal.
Previously recognized as the 2013
recipient of the John A. Franklin
Award, the Canadian Geotechnical
Society is now doubly honoured to
award
Professor Erik Eberhardt
with the
2017 Thomas Roy Award
for excellence in Geological Engineer-
ing.”
Committee News
Sixth International Young Geo-
technical Conference (iYGEC6)
Dr. Jeff Oke and Andrea
Lougheed
The Canadian Geotechnical Society
and the Canadian Foundation for
Geotechnique sponsored two distin-
guished young geotechnical engineers
to attend the Sixth International Young
Geotechnical Engineering Conference
(iYGEC6) from September 16 to 17,
2017. The conference was held at the
Global Education Center for Engineers
at Seoul National University in Seoul,
Republic of Korea. Candidates were
chosen for their leadership and activity
in the Canadian geotechnical commu-
nity and their contribution to practice.
Jeff Oke
and
Andrea Lougheed
were
selected to represent the Canadian
Geotechnical Society this event.
Dr. Jeffrey Oke completed his Ph.D.
studies in 2016 on the numerical,
empirical, and analytical analysis
of umbrella arch support systems in
underground excavations at Queen`s
University. Since early 2015, he works
as a geomechanic consultant at Mine
Design Engineering Inc. Here is a
short report from Jeff Oke summariz-
ing his participation to the iYGEC6.
Report on iYGEC6
I would like to thank the Canadian
Geological Society for providing me
with opportunity to attend iYGEC6 in
Seoul, South Korea. It was an excel-
lent experience both personally and
professionally. As I expected from
such distinguished organizations, there
was a strong focus was on developing
relationships among participants. The
social dinners and receptions were
very well organized and the organiz-
ers made it a priority that during the
gala, board executives would disperse
among the iYGEC6 attendees to
encourage communication and rela-
tionship building between the young
and “less young” (I was instructed to
not use the term “old”) participants.
I had the privilege to be seated with
a fellow Canadian, Paul Mayne of
Georgia Tech, as well as Moonkyung
Chung, Vice-President for Interna-
tional Affairs of the Korean Geotech-
nical Society.
One negative about the conference
was the rather relaxed adherence to the
posted schedule. This made it difficult
to jump between parallel sessions as
the presentations were not always
starting at the appointed time; How-
ever, I was able to catch many of the
important lectures and to contribute to
the discussions.
I was also able to discuss old research
topics from my thesis, which allowed
me to acquire a reference that I
could not find at my university. Most
importantly, I met a participant who
indicated that he had in fact read my
thesis, by his own choice! When I
informed my spouse about this meet-
ing, her response was a sarcastic “so
he is the one”. I’m almost sure that
this joke was to ease the tension she
was feeling over the political issues
that were occurring during the confer-
ence.
Leading up to the conference, I was
following the news to assure myself
that North Korea and the United States
were not about to break out into open
hostilities. As a graduate from the
Royal Military College of Canada, my
many military friends tried to reassure
us that they thought that both countries
would continue to behave themselves
and that nothing was going to happen.
When discussing this issue with South
Koreans we meet on the way to Seoul
and during the conference, they all
responded in the same way. They had
all grown up with this type of rhetoric
from North Korea and the constant
threats, but no real action from the
north. To them, it was just another day.
This reassured both my spouse and
