Technical Advisor and Chief Technology Officer, Strata Geosystems (India) Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, India

Topic: A Tryst with Geosynthetics

Shri. Shahrokh Bagli graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and continued there for his postgraduation. He is a Fellow, Indian Geotechnical Society and Fellow, Institution of Engineers (India). He has over 48 years’ experience in geotechnical and civil engineering, of which the past ten years have been entirely devoted to the field of geosynthetics. At Strata Geosystems (India), he has been instrumental in streamlining the designs of geosynthetics and has brought to the fore, innovative applications of geogrids and geocells. Such innovations include vertical containment for hazardous waste landfill, check dam constructed from geocells, use of mechanistic-empirical methods for the design of flexible pavements reinforced with geocells, and the use of two-layer theory for the analysis of a load bearing system incorporating geocells. Shahrokh’s expertise in geosynthetics is well recognised and he is a member of two prestigious Committees of the Indian Roads Congress - for flexible pavements, slopes and embankments, and for bridges. He is also a member of the TX-30 and TX-33 Committees of the Bureau of Indian Standards. Besides these, he has been appointed to the Executive Committee of the Initiative for Geotechnical Research and Innovative Practice (iGrip), a programme of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar for the advancement of geotechnology and geosynthetics for various engineering applications. He is a member of the Board of Studies of the Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering of the NMIMS, an autonomous university for management studies. He has 45 technical publications to his credit. Shahrokh’s initiatives have been appreciated by the engineering and societal fraternities and has, in the recent years, been awarded: 1. Lifetime Achievement Award for 2015-16 of the Delhi Chapter of the Indian Geotechnical Society; 2. The Mancherji Edalji Joshi Memorial Trust Outstanding Contribution Award 2017 for Excellence in Geosynthetics and Environmental Preservation; 3. Appreciation Award for contributions to the Indian Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society in 2019.

 President ASCE & Senior Vice President, AECOM, USA

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Dr. Kancheepuram N. Gunalan (Guna) is proud to be a civil engineer and is passionate about enhancing the quality of life for communities around the world through this profession and continuously advancing the careers of his fellow civil engineers. He is committed to ethics and ethical behavior in all aspects of life, and was awarded the 2016 ASCE Professional Practice Ethics and Leadership award for his dedication to this topic. He learned more about how to encourage ethical behavior in others by serving as a member of the National Institute of Engineering Ethics. He took the opportunity to serve as the Chair of the Geotechnical Group of the Utah Section and was fortunate enough to get involved in some major projects. Guna served as the Technical Support Manager on the $1.529 billion I-15 Reconstruction Project that received an ASCE OPAL award. He served as Utah Section President during the 150th anniversary of ASCE and volunteered for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Guna rose to serve ASCE at both the regional and national levels, and chaired the 2014 Global Engineering Conference in Panama City, Panama during the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal that was held in conjunction with the Engineers Without Borders Conference. Guna has worked on major engineering projects all over the world – experiences that provide him with a unique global perspective on the engineering industry and the challenges faced by civil engineers.

 William Scott Professor and Distinguished James McGill Professor, McGill University, Canada

Topic: THM Aspects of Poroelastic and Poroelasto-Plastic Geomaterals

Dr. Selvadurai is recognized for contributions to continuum mechanics, theoretical, computational and experimental geomechanics and applied mathematics for which he has received the Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, The Max Planck Prize in the Engineering Sciences, The Killam Prize, The Biot Medal, The Reissner Medal and The Desai Medal. His research includes the mechanics of elastic media undergoing large deformations, fracture mechanics, micromechanics of inclusions and defects, poroelasticity, coupled THM processes in deformable media, mechanics of inhomogeneous media, interfaces in geomechanics, fragmentation of brittle geomaterials, transport in porous media and mechanics of geosynthetics subjected to chemical exposure. He has published extensively in archival journals ( http://www.mcgill.ca/civil/people/selvadurai/list-research-publications). He is the author or co-author of texts on Elastic Analysis of Soil-Foundation Interaction (Elsevier, 1979), Elasticity and Geomechanics (with R.O. Davis) (CUP, 1996), Partial Differential Equations in Mechanics Vols. 1&2 (Springer, 2000); Plasticity and Geomechanics (with R.O. Davis) (CUP, 2002), Transport in Porous Media (with Y. Ichikawa) (Springer 2012) and Thermo-Poroelasticity and Geomechanics (with A.P. Suvorov) (CUP, 2016). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, The Canadian Academy of Engineering, The Engineering Institute of Canada, The American Academy of Mechanics, The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and The Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (UK). He is a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Mathematician.

 Founding Director, ARC’s Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Advancing Rail Infrastructure (ITTC-Rail); Director, Transport Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Topic: Internal Instability and Fluidization of Subgrade Soil under Cyclic Loading

Prof. Buddhima Indraratna is a world authority on the application of fundamental and applied geotechnical research to the development of railway infrastructure, and he is passionate about training young engineers to become masters of railroad design and construction. He currently leads numerous projects worth over $ 1.5 million per year. A consultant to various geotechnical and rail organisations around the world, he is also among the most highly cited researchers internationally. He has published over 850 papers, including 12 books and about 450 journal papers, and has delivered over 80 invited keynote papers on all continents. His outstanding contributions to Australian Transport Geotechnics have been recognised by several prestigious awards, including the Business-Higher Education Round Table (BHIRT) award hosted by the Australian Commonwealth (2009), and the Engineers Australia Transport Medal (2011). In 2009, he delivered the prestigious EH Davis Memorial Lecture of Australian Geomechanics Society for distinguished contributions to theory and practice of geomechanics. Internationally, his significant contributions are reflected by many awards, for instance, 1st Ralph Proctor Lecture (2016) and 4th Louis Menard Lecture (2018) of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, the Thomas Telford Premium by the UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers (2015), Robert Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society (2012), and the Medal of Excellence for life-time contributions from the International Association of Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (2017).

 Donald H. McLaughlin Chair in Mineral Engineering Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Topic: Distributed Sensing and Monitoring of Geotechnical Structures

Prof. Kenichi Soga is the Donald H. McLaughlin Chair in Mineral Engineering and a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his BEng and MEng from Kyoto University in Japan and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He was Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Cambridge before joining UC Berkeley in 2016. He has published more than 400 journal and conference papers and is the co-author of “Fundamentals of Soil Behavior, 3rd edition” with Professor James K Mitchell. He is a Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He is the recipient of several awards including George Stephenson Medal and Telford Gold Medal from ICE and Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from ASCE.

 University Scholar & Distinguished Researcher, Director, Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory & Sustainable Engineering Research Laboratory, University of Illinois Chicago, USA

Topic: In-Situ Electrobioremediation of Polluted Sites: Laboratory and Field Investigations

Dr. Krishna Reddy is University Scholar, Distinguished Researcher, and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of Sustainable Engineering Research Laboratory, and Director of the Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. Dr. Reddy received Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA. He received gold medals for being first in B.E. Civil Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad and M.E. Civil Engineering (Geotechnical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Dr. Reddy worked as Civil Engineer and Project Manager for over 3 years in industry and worked on many civil and environmental engineering projects. Dr. Reddy is a registered Professional Civil Engineer and an Envision Sustainability Professional. Dr. Reddy’s teaching, research and consulting experience includes: (1) geotechnical investigations and infrastructure, (2) environmental pollution control and remediation technologies, (3) waste management and beneficial reuse, and (4) sustainable/resilient engineering. Dr. Reddy is the author of four major books, including two widely used textbooks: (1) Geoenvironmental Engineering: Site Remediation, Waste Containment, and Emerging Waste Management Technologies, and (2) Sustainable Engineering: Drivers, Metrics, Tools, and Applications. He is also author of 259 journal papers, 226 full conference papers, 22 book chapters, and 21 edited books/conference proceedings (with h-index of 65 and number of citations over 14,000). Dr. Reddy has given over 200 invited presentations in the USA and 20 other countries. Dr. Reddy has received several awards for excellence in research and teaching, including ASCE Wesley W. Horner Award, ASTM Hogentogler Award, UIC Distinguished Researcher Award, University of Illinois Scholar Award, and University of Illinois Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Diplomate of Geotechnical Engineering, and Board Certified Environmental Engineer.

 Executive Director of AECOM & Adjunct Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology & University of Hong Kong

Topic: Learnings in Underground Metro Design and Construction

Dr. John Endicott is an AECOM Fellow and an Executive Director of AECOM’s geotechnical and tunnel business in Asia and the Pacific Region. He has specialized in geotechnical engineering since 1970 initially in U.K. and has been working in South East Asia, based in Hong Kong, since 1975. From 1975, he led the geotechnical group for Maunsell with extensive involvement in design of underground railway stations and tunnels, foundations, major roads including the Aberdeen Tunnel, and other tunnels and for New Town Development at Shatin, and Tai Po. He worked on a number of Committees, Working CT10 and CT11 Parties, and Review Panels relating to Regulations for foundations, slope stability and site investigation. In 1986, he joined Dames & Moore and was responsible the S.E. Asian Region. He led the design of ground engineering works for some 15 underground railway stations and 12 railway tunnels in Taipei. He provided specialist consulting services for 12 underground stations in Singapore, 9 underground stations and associated tunnels in Bangkok, 6 underground stations and tunnels in Delhi, 6 underground stations and tunnels at Kolkata, and 27 underground stations and tunnels at Chennai. Recent work has included the Arbitration for Stage 1 deep sewer tunnels, for Piling in karst at Ma On Shan for HKHA, for several cases with short piles, and for the collapse of the Nicoll Highway in Singapore. Currently he is working on HATS 2A Sewage Tunnels and Lai Chi Kok Drainage Tunnel. He is currently the Senior Consultant for ground engineering throughout Asia and Pacific, for AECOM

 Distinguished University Professor, Western University, Canada & Editor-in-Chief Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

Topic: Response of Helical Piles To Dynamic Loading

Dr. El Naggar is a Distinguished University Professor of Western University, Canada. He is Editor-In-Chief of Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering and past Associate Editor of the Canadian Geotechnical Journal. He published more than 450 technical papers/book chapters on foundations, soil-structure interaction and geotechnical earthquake engineering; and consulted on major projects worldwide. He is the main developer of software DYNA6 used worldwide for design of foundations for dynamic loads. He received numerous awards including: Geosynthetics, Stermac, Meyerhof, Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium Speaker, Western University Distinguished Professorship, Faculty Scholar Award, Outstanding Teaching, and Research Excellence Awards as well as the 2015 Ontario Professional Engineers Medal for Engineering Research & Development. He is an elected Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineers, Engineering Institute of Canada and the American Society for Civil Engineers.

 Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Napoli Federico II, Napoly, ITALY

Topic: Innovative Liquefaction Mitigation Techniques

Prof. Flora completed Master degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Napoli Federico II (Italy); PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at the Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). Visiting researcher at IIS (University of Tokyo, Japan, 1994) and visiting professor at the University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2008). Secretary of TC301 (preservation of historic sites) of ISSMGE. Italian representative in TC211 (ground improvement) of ISSMGE. Member of the editorial boards of the Italian Geotechnical Journal and of the Built Heritage and Geotechnics Volumes. Author of about 200 papers, some of which have been awarded as best papers, and coauthor of 2 books on jet grouting (CRC press). Coeditor of different volumes on Geotechnics and Heritage. In 2022, he will be the third Kerisel Lecturer (honorary lecture of TC301). Invited, keynote or SoA speaker to a number of international conferences. Collector of a number of competitive Italian and European funding grants. Coordinator of the European Raw Materials Commitment “Rose”. Invited Expert Member of the “European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials”. Research interests: ground improvement, liquefaction risk mitigation, geotechnical seismic isolation systems, mechanics of coarse soils, preservation of historic sites.