CGS News

Call for Nominations – The 2013 Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium

The Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium is a commissioned work financially supported by the Canadian Foundation for Geotechnique. It is awarded annually to a member of the Canadian geotechnical community. The purpose of the Colloquium is to provide information of a particular interest to Canadian geotechnique and to provide encouragement to a younger member of the Society in pursuing studies in the Colloquium’s preparation. The Colloquium is presented at the CGS Annual Conference and must be suitable for publication in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal. It must be prepared in the format established by the Journal; however, the decision to publish in the Journal is exclusively the responsibility of the Journal Editor. The choice of the individual and topic is made by the Society’s Selection Committee of the Geotechnical Research Board based on the nominations received. The successful candidate receives an honorarium of $5,000 and a framed certificate.

Each nomination letter must provide an introduction to the candidate and their main accomplishments. It must be accompanied by an abstract of about 2,000 words of the proposed lecture, emphasizing the importance of the topic to the Canadian geotechnical community, a brief review of the state-of-the-art on that problem, an outline of the significance of the candidate’s contribution, and a curriculum vitae listing the nominee’s practical experience relevant to the topic and the nominee’s publication record.  Information on the nomination criteria can be obtained from Item C-2 of the “Awards and Honours Manual 2010”, or the latest edition.  To find this Manual, CGS members can log-in at http://cgs.ca/login.php then proceed to Online Member Resources, and find the Awards and Honours Manual.

Nominations should be submitted prior to January 31, 2012 to James Blatz, P.Eng., Department of Civil Engineering ,  University of Manitoba , Winnipeg,  MB R3T 2N2 Canada, blatzja@cc.umanitoba.ca  or in care of the CGS Secretariat at cgs@cgs.ca.

Call for Nominations – The Robert N. Farvolden Award for Hydrogeology

Every year, in conjunction with the Canadian National Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (CNC-IAH), the Canadian Geotechnical Society presents the Robert N. Farvolden Award to an individual or group to recognize excellence in hydrogeology in one or more of the following areas: research and publication, professional practice and education, and service to the professional community or public, either nationally or internationally.  Recent winners have been Garth van der Kamp (2005), Emil Frind (2007), Frank Patton (2008), the late Pierre Gélinas (2009), Robert van Everdingen (2010) and Bob Betcher (2011).

For the 2012 Farvolden Award, as the two organizations are not meeting jointly, the nominations must be received by the CGS Secretary General, Dr. Victor Sowa (vsowacgs@dccnet.com), or by Dr. Grant Ferguson (grant.ferguson@usask.ca), President of the CNC-IAH, by April 1st of the year of the Award.  The 2012 Award will be announced first at the CNC-IAH meeting in Niagara Falls in September and then presented at the CGS meeting in Winnipeg in October. 

A nomination for the Farvolden Award must describe the contributions of the candidate(s).  Each nomination will be considered by the Award Selection Committee.  This committee may reject, without further consideration, any nomination that, in its opinion does not adequately detail the contributions of the candidate(s).  The nominee (or nominees in the case of a joint nomination) may be a specialist or a generalist working in academia, or for a government agency or in consulting. The nominee(s) should display a similar integrity, mentorship, or similar unselfish leadership that distinguished Robert N. Farvolden in his career. The nomination should be supported by additional letters of support which must include support from outside the institution to which the nominee(s) belong(s).  An appropriate nomination will include a summary of the person’s (or persons’) academic background, their mentoring and/or teaching credentials, their achievements during their career, and their contributions to Canadian hydrogeology through their leadership and participation.  A single nomination submitted by April 1st of the Award year is sufficient to initiate and complete the annual process of selection on the basis of the nominee’s excellence in research and publication, or professional practice and education or professional service or some combination of these areas.

The IAH and CGS call on Canadian hydrogeologists to submit nominations for the Farvolden Award to honour those who have displayed the very qualities that Bob Farvolden brought to our profession. 

Chris Neville,
Chair, CGS Hydrogeology Division

CGS Membership Registration for 2012

Visit the Canadian Geotechnical Website at www.cgs.ca to renew your membership – 2012 renewals will be available in December 2011.

Membership Benefits include:

•             Keep up with local, national and international developments

•             Share insights, visions and experience

•             Present projects and research to peers

•             Record Continued Education Unit (CEU) and Professional Development Activities (PDAs)

•             Attend lectures, Cross Canada Lectures, short courses, workshops, seminars and conferences etc. organized locally or nationally at membership rates

•             Eligible to participate as Executives in local or national committees and boards

•             Meet, socialize and know colleagues with common interests, potential employers or employees

•             Develop contacts with colleagues across Canada

•             Sponsorship and mentorship initiatives

•             Membership fee includes free internet access to all early Canadian Geotechnical Journal plus 12 new issues per year

•             Geotechnical News - 4 issues per year

•             Website www.cgs.ca, CGS News, CGS e-News

We look forward to your membership renewal or joining as a new member soon. We also ask that all current members to invite a friend or colleague to join the Canadian Geotechnical Society. With your help, we can continue to provide the benefits the society brings to our profession.

Conference Summary: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Geotechnical Engineering and Soil Mechanics, and 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning Geotechnical Engineering

The 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Geotechnical Engineering and Soil Mechanics, and 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning Geotechnical Engineering were held in Toronto from October 2 to 6, 2011. Over 825 conference delegates attended, with over 500 technical proceeding papers and 63 exhibitor booths. The conference was a blend of Canadian and South American conference traditions, with a combination of plenary and concurrent breakout sessions. The conference technical program was set to enhance opportunities for interaction between academics, practitioners, designers, contractors and owners, through a combination of invited speakers for plenary and keynote presentations, specialist technical breakout sessions, poster presentations and exhibits.

On Sunday, pre conference workshops on Meaningful Numerical Modelling in Geotechnical Engineering,  The Use of Geophysics for Geotechnical Projects:   Benefits and Potential Pitfalls,  Advanced Features for Slope Stability Analysis,  Geosynthetics in Landfill and other Barrier Systems and  FLAC Modelling for Soils were presented.

Plenary session presentations consisted of the Casagrande Lecture by Kerry Rowe on  Short and long-term leakage through composite liners and the R.M. Hardy Address by K.Y. Lo on  The effects of deep excavation in soils and rock on adjacent structures. The CGS Colloquium was presented by Craig Lake on Assessing geo-environmental performance of cement-based containment systems and the CGS Graduate Student Paper was presented by Fathi Mohamed on Bearing capacity and settlement  behaviour of shallow footings in unsaturated sands. Six keynote and theme lectures were also presented by Carlos Santamarina, José Amundaray, Gabriel Auvinet, Márcio Almeida, John McCartney and Andy Take.

The primary CGS Award, the 2011 R.F. Legget Medal was presented to Dr. Liam Finn of UBC at the luncheon on Tuesday. Later that evening at the awards gala, the remainder of the awards and honours were presented.

At the Monday luncheon, the 75th Anniversary of the ISSMGE was celebrated with presentations on the Past, Present and Future of ISSME in North and South America by Norbert Morgenstern, Gabriel Auvinet, Roberto Terzariol, Franco Francisca, and Sandra Garcia.

The social program offered wonderful combinations of food, drink and entertainment, starting at the Sunday evening icebreaker, through the Awards Gala, to the local colour night at the Royal Ontario Museum.

At the Closing Ceremonies, Conference Chair Andrew Drevininkas passed the conference bell and banner to the committee for the CGS 2012 conference, which will be held in Winnipeg next October.

We would like to express thanks to the organizing committee on behalf of all of the attendees for an entertaining, informative and successful conference. We are also extremely grateful for the generous support of our sponsors and exhibitors, as without their support this conference would not have been possible. Special thanks to our platinum sponsors:  AMEC, BGC Engineering, Coffey Geotechnics, ConeTec, EBS Engineering & Construction, Geopac, Geo-Slope International, Golder Associates, MEG Consulting, Rapid Impact Piers, Reinforced Earth Company, Stantec, and Worley Parsons.

Canadian Foundation for Geotechnique

The Canadian Foundation for Geotechnique (the Foundation) was established in 1970 as a registered charitable organization that operates at arm’s length from the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS).  Its mission is to recognize and foster excellence in geotechnique in Canada. Specifically, the Foundation funds the CGS student awards and prizes, the CGS Colloquium, travel for the Cross Canada Lecture Tours, and the Foundation’s own National Graduate Scholarship.  In total the Foundation requires approximately $35,000 every year to fund these endeavours.

At the very successful, joint CGS/Pan Am Conference in Toronto in October 2011, we were asked, “Where does the Foundation gets its funding?”

Since 2000, the Cross Canada Lecture Tours have been supported entirely by corporate sponsorship.  Over this period of time there have been 22 very generous companies who have helped with the sponsorship. 

The remainder of the Foundation’s annual funding comes from 1) individual donations, primarily from CGS members and 2) the interest it earns on its investments. 

The principal from which the interest is derived has been accumulated over the years, initially from the profits of the 6th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, which was held in Montreal in 1965, and latterly from interest-free loans from the CGS, and both interest free loans and donations from the CGS local sections, some of which originate as profits from various CGS conferences.

But by far the most important source of funding for the annual awards, prizes and the Foundation’s National Graduate Scholarship is donations from individual CGS members.  Each time you renew your CGS membership on-line, you are reminded to donate something to the Canadian Foundation for Geotechnique.  If you aren’t already a regular donor, we would encourage you to you join the CGS members that made donations last year. Donations can also be made directly to the Foundation by completing a donation form that can be downloaded from our website at www.cfg-fcg.ca.

The donations do not need to be large … “many hands make light work”.

Over the years the Foundation has had a number of significant donations from individuals.  The Foundation recognizes those individuals who have donated a cumulative amount of more than $25,000 as Legacy Donors. Donations can take the form of cash, securities or bequests.  Contributions can be made by an individual or by a group to honour an individual.  Contributions can be targeted to a specific initiative or for unspecified purposes.  This past year we initiated a similar Legacy Corporate Sponsor program.  Both the Legacy Donors and Legacy Corporate Sponsors are honoured annually at the Canadian Geotechnical Conference.  The amount of the donation is never disclosed.

So, for the individual who asked the question … that’s the short answer.  We hope it gives everyone cause to pause and donate to the Foundation when joining the CGS for the first time, or when renewing one’s membership.