1st Young Geotechnical Professionals Conference

Welcome to the First Australia-New Zealand Young Geotechnical Professionals Conference being held at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. conference is an initiative of and is sponsored by the National Committee of the Australian Geomechanics Society. The Management Committee of the New Zealand Geomechanics Society has strongly supported the concept of this conference and, further, have sponsored five of the registrants.

This conference follows several similar ones that have been held in Europe over the last decade but is different from these in two important ways. Firstly, the European conferences have been organised by the National Groups of the ISSMFE and have thus been mainly concerned with soil mechanics and titled Young Geotechnical Engineers Conferences. In this region the professions of geotechnical engineering and engineering geology are closely linked and thus the present conference intends to foster increasingly close links between our young engineering and geological professionals. Secondly, the European conferences have been oriented towards research, the present conference intends to develop links between young researchers and those working in industry.

Twenty years ago the geotechnical community was such that it was quite possible (and almost common) for any experienced geotechnical engineer or engineering geologist to know either personally or, at least by reputation, almost all of his or her professional peers within Australia or New Zealand. This gave the profession a strong sense of purpose. Many coming to ANZ from overseas were struck by the friendly nature of the professionals they met. The good and bad news is that the profession has now grown too large for this generally to be the case nowadays. This conference hopes to set a younger generation of geotechnical professionals on a path to knowing their peers and taking an active role in the region’s geotechnical societies.

Finally, a word of thanks to people who have assisted in the success of this conference: Prof Harry Poulos who first suggested the idea at an AGS National Committee meeting; Philip Pells who agreed to present his recent EH Davis Memorial Lecture to the conference; Ian Swane who agreed to talk on Environmental Geomechanics; and John Braybrooke who agreed to talk on Engineering Geology. It is worth noting that each of the speakers has actively contributed to the AGS over the years, Philip in many ways but recently as the EH Davis Memorial Lecturer, lan as the inaugural Trollope Medal winner in 1988, and John as the Regional Vice President of the IAEG. A personal thanks to Nasser Khalili and John Small, my colleagues on the organising committee, for the work they have put in over the last six months to make this conference a reality.

Welcome to Sydney and I hope that this is the first of a succession of conferences that will indeed bring the younger and brighter of the geotechnical community together.

Garry Mostyn
Chairman, Organisation Committee