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Geotechnical News • March 2019
local Kingston Chapter of the Society.
Dr. Moore is a renowned researcher
in the field of geotechnical engineer-
ing and an internationally-recognized
leader in the design of buried infra-
structure. His scholarly strengths are
diverse and he has published over 280
referred journal and conference papers
and chapters in books. Dr. Moore has
received many awards for his achieve-
ments including the RM Quigley
Award and G. G. Meyerhof Award that
he received from the CGS.
While Dr. Moore is the candidate pro-
posed by the Nominating Committee,
other nominations are also welcomed.
Any general member of the CGS may
nominate a candidate for the position
of President-elect. Nominations must
be received in writing by the CGS
National Office by June 15, 2019
(
. Nominations must
include the printed names, signatures
and membership numbers of at least
eighteen (18) general members of
CGS, and a statement by the nomi-
nated candidate expressing a willing-
ness to serve as President-Elect and
then President, if elected.
If there is no additional candidate, Dr.
Ian Moore will be acclaimed at the
CGS Board of Directors meeting in St.
John’s this fall. In the event additional
candidates are nominated, the selec-
tion of the President-Elect will be
made by a general members’ ballot
during the summer of 2019.
For further information on this mat-
ter, please contact the CGS Execu-
tive Director, Michel Aubertin at the
National Office
or
).
Submitted by Dharma Wijewickreme,
Past President (2017-2018)
President-Elect Objectives:
Nomination Statement of Dr.
Ian Moore
It is a huge honour to be selected by
the Nominating Committee of the
Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS)
for consideration as our Society’s next
President. I accept this nomination and
if elected will work to serve the Soci-
ety as President-elect during 2020, and
for a two-year term as President com-
mencing January 2021. I joined the
CGS soon after I immigrated to Can-
ada in the early 90s. Indeed – my deci-
sion to follow the opportunity to move
to Canada from Australia was influ-
enced, in part, by the high regard with
which Canadian geotechnique is held
by the international community. Since
becoming involved in the work of the
Society about 2 decades ago, a number
of its characteristics have become
very clear to me. Firstly, there is an
extraordinary culture of volunteering
to serve the membership and other
beneficiaries of the Society’s activities
– by our many local volunteers, our
regional and division members and
office holders, right up to our unpaid
National Executive (the President,
Vice-Presidents and Regional and
Division representatives). Secondly,
the Society is made up of an excep-
tional mix of geotechnical engineering
and geoscience professionals, with
both industry and academia strongly
represented – a mix that strengthens
everything we do (from student train-
ing to the support the Society provides
towards continuing education and
input for our professional members to
lead and responsibly practice geotech-
nical engineering and make changes to
that practice). As a result, the Society
is in a strong position financially, is
well regarded by the profession across
Canada and beyond, and has enviable
depth and breadth relative to many
other learned societies – groups who
generally have much more expensive
executives and much weaker levels of
volunteering and activity at the local
and regional level, who often have
poor representation from industry
(most learned societies are dominated
by academicians), and frequently face
declining memberships and operating
budgets. The responsibility associated
with the CGS legacy is large – and
involves building on the successes of
the past, while addressing new chal-
lenges.
This was the case in two of my
previous volunteer positions with the
society – during my work with Dennis
Becker as co-Editors of the 4th (2006)
Edition of the Canadian Foundation
Engineering Manual, and my work as
Editor of the Canadian Geotechnical
Journal. Each case involved continu-
ing an exceptional legacy, while
addressing and even capitalizing on
new issues and challenges. For the
CFEM, the challenge was to identify
and motivate suitable experts across
Canada to undertake either major
revisions in areas of rapid change in
theory and practice, or timely updates
needed to previous material, dur-
ing that period 15 to 20 years ago
when workloads in both industry and
academia grew very substantially. As a
result of the efforts of the team of peo-
ple who contributed, I believe that the
4th edition of the manual has enjoyed
exceptional success (many sales pro-
ducing a strong revenue stream for the
Society, and highly influential, very
helpful support towards geotechnical
engineering practice).
For the CGJ, the period of my editor-
ship from 2007 to 2018 covered very
significant changes, including the way
paper reviews and the associated com-
munications were managed (the move
from Osprey to the Scholar One edito-
rial system), changes in the publisher
from the public sector to become a
private not-for-profit enterprise, and
consequently the way the editorial
office was financed and managed, a
three-fold increase in the number of
manuscripts submitted to the jour-
nal and therefore substantial growth
needed in the board and the team of
well qualified and effective reviewers,
together with raised author expecta-
tions for timely reviews and increased
competition from existing and many
new journals. With support from addi-
tional editors Drs Sheng and Lake and
an outstanding editorial board, authors
and reviewers, the journal rose to the
challenge, significantly increasing
Impact Factor and other metrics and
further strengthening its position as
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