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

Topic:

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.

 President ASCE, Spencer J. Buchanan Chair Professor, University Distinguished Professor, Regents Fellow, Director, National Geotechnical Experimentation Site, Texas A&M University, USA

Topic: Geotechnical Risk: What is Acceptable?

Professor Jean-Louis Briaud is a Distinguished Professor and Holder of the Spencer J. Buchanan Chair in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a Professional Engineer. He received his Bachelor degree in France in 1972 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Ottawa in Canada in 1979. His expertise is in foundation engineering and more generally geotechnical engineering. He has served as President of the Association of Geotechnical Engineering Professors, President of the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, President of the Federation of International Geoengineering Societies and is President Elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Among other awards, he has received the ASCE Ralph Peck Award from the USA, the CGS Geoffrey Meyerhof Foundation Engineering Award from Canada, the Honorable Aitalyev Medal from Kazakhstan, and is a member of the National Academy of Natural Sciences in Russia. Over the last 30 years, Dr. Briaud has conducted about 10 million dollars of research most of which was on foundations and retaining walls. He has supervised 50 PhD students and 90 Master students. He is the author of a book entitled Geotechnical Engineering and one entitled The Pressuremeter; he has published about 300 articles and reports. He enjoys tennis, soccer, and rugby, and plays jazz piano at the amateur level.

 Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, Canada

Topic: Use of Artifical Intelligence Methods as a Tool in the Prediction of the Soil Water Characterstic Curves

Dr. Sai Vanapalli is a professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Since receiving his PhD in 1994, he has been actively involved in research and teaching activities related to the mechanics of unsaturated soils and its application in geotechnical engineering. Dr. Vanapalli has authored or co-authored more than 400 research papers and has presented 25 keynote addresses in several national and international conferences. Throughout his research career, he has received and been nominated for several awards. Most notably, he received the Stermac Award in 2010, awarded for outstanding service contributions to the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the George S. Glinski Award for Canada. Excellence in Research in 2015 from the University of Ottawa. He is TC6 (Unsaturated Soils) committee member representing Canada. Dr. Vanapalli's research studies focus on the design and analysis of geotechnical structures such as pavements, shallow and deep foundations, slopes, soil nails and retaining walls. Dr. Vanapalli takes pride in his teaching and serving as a mentor for many of his students who have successful careers in academia, research and industry. A dozen of his former PhD students and Post-docs currently serve as professors in universities across Canada and around the world.

 Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies – Intelligent & Resilient Ocean Engineering, Deputy Director of Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute, Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering, University of Southampton, United Kingdom

Topic: A New Philosophy for Offshore Geotechnical Design; Theory and Practice

Susan is a civil engineer by background, graduating from University of London (1994). She was awarded her PhD from the University of Southampton (1998), then joined the Engineering Department at Cambridge University and then the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems at the University of Western Australia. Susan re-joined the University of Southampton in 2017 as Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering, and was appointed Deputy Director of the Southampton Marine & Maritime Instutute in 2018. Susan holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies in Intelligent & Resilient Ocean Engineering, which drives activities to create a step-change in ocean engineering design to support responsible, sustainable and economic ocean development.

Susan disseminates her research outcomes through scholarly journal and conference papers, through social and mainstream media, and through freeware web apps (www.webappsforengineers.com); she has co-authored the text books Offshore Geotechnical Engineering, and Intermediate Offshore Foundations and co-edited the Proceedings of the inaugural and second International Symposia on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics.

Susan is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) and Convenor of the International Standardisation Organisation committee responsible for developing industry standards for marine soil investigation and offshore geotechnical design.

 Retired Chief General Manager (Civil) - Head - Geotechnical Section, Institute of Engineering and Ocean Technology (IEOT), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC)

Topic: CPT Application in Offshore Soil Investigations – Equipment, Deployment and Data Interpretation

Er R.K. Ghanekar is a post graduate from University of Roorkee in 1983. He has been working in ONGC on offshore geotechnics, for shallow as well as deep waters, since 1988. He retired in 2020 as the Head of Geotechnical Section of Institute of Engineering and Ocean technology (IEOT) – one of the premier R&D institutes of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC). He has more than 40 publications in national and international forums and is a member of TP1, WG 10 of ISO’s TC 67 for Marine Soil Investigation and a member of TC 209 of ISSMGE. He is also one of the editors of "Advances in Offshore Geotechnics (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 92)", Proceedings of First Indian Symposium on Offshore Geotechnics (ISOG 2019), ISBN 978-981-15-6831-2, Springer. His current interests include site investigation and foundation design for deep and ultra deep water oil and gas development and, offshore wind energy converters.

 Professor, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore & Editor-in-Chief Indian Geotechnical Journal

Topic: Morphological Perspectives to Quantify and Mitigate Liquefaction in Sands

Prof. Madhavi Latha is a Professor at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. Prior to joining Indian Institute of Science in 2003, she was an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for a year. Her areas of specializations include geocell reinforcement, soil-geosynthetic interactions, image-based characterizations. seismic response of reinforced soil structures and rock engineering. She has so far supervised 15 Ph.D. students. She has published more than 150 technical papers in international and national journals and conferences. Prof. Madhavi Latha is the primary geotechnical consultant for the world’s highest railway bridge being constructed in Jammu, India. She received ‘Teacher Extraordinaire’ award from the Builders Association of India and several national and international best paper awards. She is a member of ISSMGE Technical Committees on “Soil structure interaction and retaining walls”, “Geo-mechanics from micro to macro” and the Technical Committee on “Soil reinforcement” of the International Geosynthetics Society. She is currently the Editor-in-chief of Indian Geotechnical Journal published by Springer and an Associate editor of Geotextiles and Geomembranes published by Elsevier. She is the first recepient of the Best Woman Geotechnical Engineer award of the Indian Geotechnical Society in 2020. She has received the SERB POWER Fellowship in 2021. She has delivered the first T K Gopalakrishnan Nair Memorial Annual Lecture organized by the IGS Student Chapter of LBS Institute of Technology for Women, Thiruvananthapuram in June 2021.

 Editor-in-Chief, Int. Journal of Geosynthetics and Ground Engineering, and Founding Research Group Leader (Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering), School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Australia

Topic: Wraparound Reinforcement Technique for Strenghtening the Shallow Foundations – A Sustainable Approach

Professor Sanjay Kumar Shukla is Founding Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Geosynthetics and Ground Engineering. He is Founding Research Group Leader (Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental) at School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia. He holds Distinguished Professorship at seven universiteis, inclding Delhi Technological University, Delhi. He has over 25 years of experience in teaching, research and consultancy in the field of Civil/Geotechnical Engineering. He has authored more than 270 research articles, including over 170 refereed journal publications. He is also author/editor of 23 books, including 7 textbooks, and 22 book chapters. In 2020/2021, his two ICE textbooks have been ranked #1 by Amazon. Shukla’s generalized expressions for seismic active thrust (2015) and seismic passive resistance (2013) are routinely used by practicing engineers worldwide. Shukla’s wrapround reinforcement technique, developed during 2007-2008, is a well-established sustaibale ground improvement technique. He has been honoured with several awards, including the most prestigious IGS Award 2018 from International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), USA. He serves on the editorial boards of nine international journals. He is a fellow of Engineers Australia, a life fellow of Institution of Engineers (India) and Indian Geotechnical Society, a member of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and several other professional bodies.

 International Manager of Maccaferri’s Geosynthetics Business Unit & Elected member of the Board of Directors of the prestigious Geosynthetic Institute (GSI)

Topic: New Design Frontiers with Geosynthetics in Geotechnical and Erosion Control Applications

Moreno Scotto, PE Graduated in Civil Engineering from University of Pisa (Italy) in 1989. After a period of employment as Project Engineer Manager by Snamprogetti SpA he became an independent consultant for geosynthetics and environmental applications. Till 1996 he works as Technical-Sale Manager of Italian Companies active as distributors of prestigious Geosynthetics companies (Exxon Geopolymers, Naue, Huesker, SGS-GSE Group). In 1996 he joins the Maccaferri Group with main assignment of developing the "geosynthetic and environmental business”. Moreno is an active member of the Italian IGS chapter (member of the directive board from 2004 to 2012) and Italian delegate to CEN and CEN-TC188 to write the EN14475 (guideline on execution of special geotechnical works on Soil Reinforcement). In 2010 become International Manager of the Geosynthetics Business Unit of Maccaferri Group; in 2012 the Coastal & Dewatering-BU is merged to the GSY-BU. In 2013 is appointed as President of Maccaferri USA branch; by the end of 2015 come back to the Corporate to be focused on the global GSY market development. International member of the board of directors of GSI (USA) for 2015-2017 and 2017-2019. In 2018 the MSE Walls-BU is incorporated in the GSY-BU and Moreno is now heading the Combined Global Business Unit.

 Professor, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology Surat

Topic: Stabilization of Industrially Contaminated Pb-Zn Slag Residue (LZSR) using Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3)

Prof. Chandresh H. Solanki is Professor (Geotechnical Engineering) in the Department of Civil Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (NIT Surat), Gujarat and faculty member since 16th August 1991. Prof. C. H. Solanki has guided more than 55 Postgraduate Dissertations and 18 Ph.D. Thesis. He is present Research Supervisor of 09 ongoing Ph.D. research scholars. He has published more than 180 research papers in reputed international/national journals and conferences. He has received the “Shri. M. S. Jain Biannual Award” for Best Paper in IGC-2013, Prof. Dinesh Mohan award in IGC-2017 and the “Distinguished Faculty Award” from The Venus International Faculty Awards-2016. He also received many best paper awards in many conferences. Prof. Solanki has organized more than 20 national level events including STTP, FDP, conferences and seminars. He was the chairman of the Indian Geotechnical Conference (IGC) 2019, Surat. He has been elected as Member of the Executive Committee IGS for the four terms (2015- 2022). He worked as the Dean (Planning & Development) & Head of the Department at SVNIT, Surat. He has published 09 books & Edited Proceedings. He has 30 years of teaching experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

 Director, Central Soil and Materials Research Station, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, New Delhi

Topic: Geological Surprises and Challenges in Geotechnical investigations of projects

Dr. R. Chitra is working as Director at Central Soil and Materials Research Station, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, New Delhi, Ministry of Jal Shakti. She has 33 years of experience in the field of geotechnical engineering. Her experience in planning, guiding and execution of geotechnical investigation works for river valley projects has spread to over 350 projects within India and neighboring countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Myanmar. Her interests include hydropower development, earth and rockfill dams, problematic soils, risk assessment of dams, numerical modeling, ash containment systems, fly ash characterization, geosynthetics in water resources, artificial neural networks and quality control of hydro-electric projects. She has published 250 technical papers in various international and national journals and conference proceedings. She is member in the expert committees of most of the dam safety review panel, major dam projects and irrigation projects. She is also member of various committees of national repute like BIS, IRC etc. and she has contributed for formulation, review and updation of various Indian Standard codes.

 Professor, Goa College of Engineering, Goa.

Topic: Landslides in lateritic soils

Dr. Purnanand Pundalik Savoikar is working as Professor in Civil Egineering in Goa Engineering College since 2014. He has completed Ph D in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2009. He is having industry experience of 04 years and teaching experience of 23 years. He was visiting faculty in IIT and NIT Goa in 2018. He has served as Secretary (Board of Technical Education) Goa and Deputy Director (Technical Education) Goa. He was member of Goa State Expert Appraisal Committee from 2010-2016. He has published 15 International Journal papers, 102 International Conference papers and 46 National Journal papers. He is reviewer of several International Journals and conferences. He is Chairman, Board of Studies (Goa University) and Member of Board of Studies (Sanjay Ghodavat University). He is the co-author of book “Textbook of Concrete Technology” published Creative Books, New Delhi in 2021. He is also co-author of book “Geotechnical Characteristics of Soils and Rocks in India”. He is the Chairman of Indian Geotechnical Society Goa chapter since 2017. He is members of TC-107 Residual Tropical Soils from 2018-21. He is guiding 08 Ph Ds under Goa University. He is life fellow ofIndian Geotechnical Society and Institution of Engineers (India).

 Head - Engineering, L&T GeoStructure Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India

Topic: Geotechnical Applications in Indian Infrastructure Development

Er. M. Kumaran is working as a Head – Engineering at L&T GeoStructure Pvt Ltd, India. He obtained his M.E in Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering from College of Engineering Guindy (CEG), Anna University, Chennai. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of piling (bored cast-in-situ, driven cast-in-situ, driven precast, spun pile and mono pile), ground improvement works and earth retaining structures. He led the geotechnical design team for various infrastructure projects across India and few of the them are a) Ports - Kattupalli shipyard, Dhamra port; b) Airport - Delhi, Bengaluru international airports; c) Roads - Samakhiali Gandhidham road project, Krishnagiri Walajah road project, Hosur Krishnagiri road project; d) Metros - Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai; e) Marine - IOCL LNG terminal Ennore, Uppur seawater intake; f) Inland waterways - Farakka navigational lock, Sahibganj multimodal terminal; g) High Speed Rail - MAHSR. He has been instrumental in providing innovative ideas like using diaphragm wall technology for water lifting projects. He authored several technical papers and presented in various conferences and forums. He is a member in the Board of Studies of the faculty of Civil Engineering, Anna University, Chennai. He is a member of Standing Technical Advisory Committee of CSMRS, India. He is also a member of the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI), member of the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS) and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

 Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Topic: Response of existing underground metro tunnel to new construction activities

Prof. Ramanathan Ayothiraman joined Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi in December 2008 and is currently working as Professor. Prior to joining IIT Delhi, he worked as Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for about 4 years. Dr. Ayothiraman has about 20 years of experience in teaching and research, in the area of Geotechnical Engineering. Prof. Ayothiraman completed his Graduation from Madurai Kamaraj University in April 1998 and Post-Graduation from College of Engineering Guindy in Jan’ 2000 with Gold Medal. He obtained his Ph.D. in the area of Soil Dynamics from IIT Madras in May 2005. He has published about 95 papers in reputed journals and conferences. He supervised 9 PhD theses and is currently supervising 13 PhD research scholars. Prof. Ayothiraman has actively involved in organizing short courses, workshops and national/international conferences. He has delivered invited lectures at numerous short courses, workshops, seminars and conferences. He is a Member of many professional societies and Reviewer of several reputed international and national journals. Prof. Ayothiraman is also serving as member of BIS for revising National Building Code and Codes related to machine foundation and rock mechanics. He has been a consultant providing technical advice for several metro projects including Delhi Metro, Kolkata Metro and Lucknow metro and several other projects of national importance.

 Head - Strategic Initiatives & Projects - ISEAP at Maccaferri.

Topic: FEM modelling to ascertain movements of Reinforced Soil Structures

Ms. Minimol Korulla is heading the Strategical projects & Initiatives and Institutional Collaboration of Maccaferri Group in Indian subcontinent and South East Asia Pacific. She is very active in Codal formulation committees like ISO , BIS and IRC and authored few imporatnat guidelines as part of authoring group . She is a guest faculty of IAHE (Indian Acadamy of Highway Engineers). Prior to Maccaferri , she worked with Mesacon Mumbai, Ketan consultaants Mumbai, Irrigation Dept Kerala and RIT Kerala. In 2001 Feb, she joined Maccaferri which was a turning point to get engaged to new technology materials. In Maccaferri currently her main assignment is to lead the strategic Initiatives of the Global company in ISEAP (India, South East Asia Pacific) region. She got unique opportunities to get involved in challenging projects of nation in the domains of Slope stabilization, River Bank stabilization, Ground Improvement and Disaster Mitigation projects as Technical reference point and reviewer from Geosynthetics field where complex geotechnical and hydraulics solutions play key role. Ms. Mini is instrumental in developing few new products and engineering systems in field assessing the techno-commercial benefits of such innovative systems in the real application area. Her focus is to use local materials in an optimum way in construction, with emphasis on eco-friendliness and carbon footprint reduction.

 Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad

Topic: Geosynthetics in pavements: An Indian perspective

Dr. Balunaini Umashankar is Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Hyderabad. He has been with IIT Hyderabad since 2009 after completing his PhD from Purdue University. He did his Bachelors from S V University in 2000 and Masters from IIT Kanpur in 2002. He specializes in geotechnical engineering with research focus on geosynthetics in pavements, reinforced earth structures, foundation engineering, recyclable materials in geotechnics, and soil-structure interaction. He is presently involved with research to use drone technology to monitor geoinfrastructre facilities. He has been involved with several research projects funded by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Neyveli Lignite Co. Ltd. (NLC), Department of Science and Technology (DST), etc. He is a technical advisor to the Irrigation & CAD Department, Government of Telangana, for the recently concluded project in the State- 'The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project’.

 Managing Director, Keller India Business Unit Managing Director, Keller Ground Engineering India Pvt. Ltd.

Topic: Moving towards Sustainable Ground Engineering

Hari Krishna Yandamuri graduated from Vasavi College of Engineering affiliated to Osmania University (India) in Civil Engineering in year 2000 and obtained his Master Degree in Geotechnical Engineering from IIT Madras (India) and pursued his Master’s Thesis at University of Karlsruhe (Germany) in year 2002. He joined Keller Group in 2002 and has been involved with design and construction of several infrastructure projects in Singapore, Malaysia and India. He worked as Engineering Manager at Keller Malaysia till 2008 and working at Keller India since 2008. He is presently working as Managing Director of Keller India Business Unit. His area of interest includes Heavy Foundation solutions using Bored Piles, Driven Piles, Diaphragm Walls, Retention Systems, Marine Foundations and Ground Improvement solutions using Vibro Techniques, Deep Soil Mixing, Grouting Techniques, Ground Anchors.

 Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

Topic: Cyclic Behaviour of Geo-materials

Prof. Subhadeep Banerjee is currently serving as the Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He received his PhD in Civil Engineering from National University of Singapore in 2010. His research interests include seismic soil-foundation interactions, cyclic behaviour of geomaterials and finite element analysis of complex dynamic problems. Besides he is also an expert in constitutive modelling of soils special emphasis to the transient dynamic behaviour. At IIT Madras, he has formed three research groups to study the following attributes, (i) Cyclic characterization of various types natural soils, improved ground, landfills etc., (ii) Development of constitutive models of soils emphasizing on their performance under seismic loadings, and (iii) Application of fundamentals of dynamics to various complex soil-structure problems such as, tunneling, base isolation techniques, plate anchors, retaining walls etc.

 Geotechnical Consultant, Kochi

Topic: Geosynthetics and Reinforced Soil Structures in India – Experiences, challenges and the path forward

Dr. Jimmy Thomas is a consulting engineer specializing in geotechnical engineering, geosynthetics, reinforced soil structures and pavement engineering. He is also a Guest Professor at IIT Gandhinagar. Jimmy Thomas holds B.Tech from Regional Engineering College Calicut, M.Tech from College of Engineering Trivandrum and PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He has industrial experience of twenty five years and teaching experience of five years. He has more than than 20 years of experience in the field of geosynthetics and reinforced soil structures. Jimmy Thomas is presently a national executive committee member of Indian Geotechnical Society, member of International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Technical Committee TC 213 on scour and erosion and Vice President Indian Chapter of International Geosynthetics Society. He has served on technical committees of Bureau of Indian Standards and Indian Road Congress actively participating in the formulation of codes and standards

 Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.

Topic: Vibration Analysis of Foundations subjected to Pulse Excitations with Negative Phase

Dr. Priti Maheshwari, Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Roorkee, has supervised 21 Masters and 04 Doctoral Theses. She has one chapter in book titled “Geotechnical Engineering Handbook”, 50+ research publications in National and International refereed journals and 20+ in National and International conferences to her credit. Her research interests include Soil – Structure Interaction, Ground Engineering: Modeling and Analysis, Statistical / Probabilistic Approaches to Strength Criteria for Rocks and Rock Masses. She is on the editorial board of International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering and Indian Geotechnical Journal. She is recipient of many awards by Indian Geotechnical Society. Apart from being member of various professional bodies, she has also been nominated to represent Indian Geotechnical Society on the International Technical Committee TC-304 on "Engineering Practice of Risk Assessment and Management" of ISSMGE for the term 2018-2021.

 Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Sarathy Geotech and Engineering Services Pvt Ltd.

Topic: Challenges in Offshore Pile Driving – A Case Study on refusal condition

Dr CR Parthasarathy started his career as a Geotechnical Engineer in 1993 and involved in numerous large scale site investigation/engineering studies for both Offshore and Onland projects viz., multi-storeyed complexes, refineries, embankments, bridges, water-retaining structures, offshore platforms, pipelines, Jackup rigs etc. He has rich experience in Site Characterisation & Deep Foundation testing. He is the user of PDI products for over two decades. Dr CR Parthasarathy is the founder director of Sarathy Geotech & Engineering Services Pvt ltd, the company with its registered office at Bangalore, India, was established in 2007 to provide geotechnical and testing services for both offshore and on land constructions in India and abroad. As a technical partner of Pile Dynamics USA, he is instrumental in promoting quality testing of deep foundations in India and authorised trainer for high strain dynamic pile testing. He is the life fellow of Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS), Elected National Executive Member of IGS for three consecutive terms and currently Chairman, IGS-Bengaluru Chapter.

 Associate Professor, National Institute of Technology Patna

Topic: Data-Driven models in Geotechnical Engineering

Dr. Pijush Samui is working as an associate professor in the civil engineering department at NIT Patna, India. He was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Pittsburgh (USA) (2008-2009) and Tampere University of Technology (Finland) (2009- 2010). Dr. Pijush’s research focuses on the application of Artificial Intelligence for designing civil engineering structure, design of foundation, stability of railway embankment, reliability analysis, site characterization, and earthquake engineering. Dr. Pijush is the recipient of the prestigious CIMO fellowship (2009) from Finland, for his integrated research on the design of railway embankment. He was awarded Shamsher Prakash Research Award (2011) by IIT Roorkee for his innovative research on the application of Artificial Intelligence in designing civil engineering structure. He wasselected asthe recipient of IGS Sardar Resham Singh Memorial Award – 2013 for his innovative research on infrastructure project. He was elected Fellow of International Congress of Disaster Management in 2010. He has been selected as an adjunct professor at Ton Duc Thang University (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). He has been Visiting Professor at Far East Federal University (Russia). He has published more than 100 international journal papers. He holds the title of docent at Tampere University. He has written several books and book chapters.

 Principal Engineer and Senior Consultant, Geo Dynamics

Topic: Design and Construction of Jack-in Piles

Dr. Jaykumar. Shukla is presently working as principal engineer and responsible for coordinating the technical development strategy for Geo Dynamics. With more than 20 year of experience, He has executed many challenging assignment involving design and construction of deep foundation, ground improvements and complex geotechnical and instrumentation. Earlier, he was working with leading design consulting organization L&T-Sargent & Lundy as Senior Geotechnical Engineer and contributed to many prestigious power projects and international assignments. During his tenure with Royal Haskoning India, he has worked for many assignments involving ports, jetties and breakwaters. He was recipient of university gold medal for undergraduate studies and obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Bombay. He is Executive Committee member of Indian Geotechnical Society for the term 2021-2022. His also member of ISSMGE Technical Committee 205 (Safety and Serviceability in Geotechnical Design). He is actively involved in research & development activities and has more than 30 research publication written in the national and international forums. He is also member of Board of Studies of Civil engineering of MS University of Baroda and member of Faculty Board of Engineering and Technology of Charotar University of Science and Technology, Gujarat. He has guided many post graduate dissertations at MS University and DDIT-Nadiad.

 Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Topic: Response of Geosynthetic encased stone column supported embankment in soft clays

Dr. Rajesh Sathiyamoorthy is an Associate Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Dr. Rajesh received Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay. Prior to joining the IIT Kanpur, Dr. Rajesh worked as a Post-Doctoral research fellow at LTHE, Grenoble, France. His research studies focus on hydro-mechanical behaviour of geomaterials, numerical and physical modelling of geostructures, application of geosynthetics, and engineered cover systems. He has successfully completed four sponsored research projects and several consulting projects, and is currently involved in three sponsored research projects. Dr. Rajesh has published more than 95 technical papers in journals and conferences, and delivered more than 25 keynote/ invited lectures at various conferences and other events. He is a recipient of Institution of Engineers (India) Young Engineers Award-2013 (Civil Engineering), Talented Young Scientist Award-2018 from Ministry of Science and Technology China, and Distinguished Alumni Award-2019 (Academic and Research) from VIT university. Dr. Rajesh is also a recipient of Prof. G. A. Leonards Biannual Award-2011, IGS - Prof. A.V. Shroff Biannual Award-2013, IIT Kanpur Best Instructor Award (six times) and few best paper awards (IGS-Bangalore Chapter YGE Award-2015&2019, IGS-Prof. C.S. Desai Biennial Award-2020, IGC-2020). He is ISSMGE, TC-106 (Unsaturated Soils) committee member representing India.

 Founder & Proprietor, Engosym Consultants

Topic: Causes of slope failure and mitigation measures adopted-A discussion through Case Studies

Annapoorni Iyer is a first-generation entrepreneur and has been in the civil engineering Industry from the year 2001. She has more than 19 years of experience and firmly believes in ‘Knowledge is Power’. Annapoorni graduated in civil engineering in the year 2001 from Mumbai University. Without much wait she was employed with Maccaferri group, a pioneer group in providing engineering solutions to various geotechnical problems with flexible structures. She was given the opportunity to handle critical slope stability issues encountered in prestigious projects like 1. Mumbai-Pune Expressway, 2. Konkan Railway, 3. Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway, 4. Pakyong Airport at Sikkim (Tallest reinforced structure in the world) and many more. With her strong belief and versatile expereince in the technical field and exposure to commercial and execution aspects, she ventured into entrepreneurship by establishing her consultancy firm in the year 2017, ‘Engosym Consultants’.Her objectives include dessiminating industrial and corporate experience to student community for the benefit of construction industry. She is passionate about giving back to the society through joy of engineering. Annapoorni is active in various forums and She is the joint secretary of IGS Pune Chapter. She is also an active member of DFI community and is a part of WiDFI.

 Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Topic: Role of a-priori information in minimizing uncertainties in MASW testing

Dr. Ravi Sankar Jakka is working as Associate Professor in the Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. He is also currently serving as Secretary, Soil Dynamics Forum, Indian Society of Earthquake Technology(ISET). He has graduated in Civil Engineering from Andhra University Engineering College in the year 2001. He has obtained masters and doctorate degrees from IIT Delhi in the years 2003 and 2007 respectively. His areas of interest are Dynamic Site Characterization, Soil Liquefaction, Seismic Slope Stability of Dams, Landslides, Foundations & Seismic Hazard Assessment. He has published over 100 articles in reputed international journals and conferences. He has supervised over 35 Masters Dissertations and 6 Ph.D. thesis, while he is currently guiding 10 PhD Thesis. He has received prestigious DAAD and National Doctoral fellowships. He has obtained University Gold Medal from Andhra University. He also received ‘Young Geotechnical Engineer Best Paper Award’ from Indian Geotechnical Society. He was instrumental in the development of Earthquake Early Warning System for northern India, a prestigious national project. He was also the Organizing Secretary to 7th International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering.

 Executive Vice President, ITD Cementation India Ltd.

Topic: Emerging Trends in Foundation Engineering in India

Manish Kumar is Executive Vice President and Chief Technical officer for ITD Cementation India Ltd., Mumbai, India. He holds B.Tech and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay and Auburn University, Alabama, USA, respectively. He is author of more than 19 technical papers in National and International forums. He is a Life member of Indian Geotechnical Society and a member of BIS Committee on Foundations. Till very recently, Manish Kumar was heading the Specialist Engineering Division covering Geotechnical activities such as Piling, Diaphragm Walling, Ground Improvement, Anchors and other Grouting applications. In his career, he has been involved with major construction projects such as Elevated and Underground Metros, Airports, Industrial projects, High-rise Buildings, Dam Rehabilitation Works and other Infrastructural Projects. As Chief Technical Officer, he is the Chief for many other functions in his Organization including Quality, Design and EHS functions. He has more than 34 years of experience in design and construction of Pile Foundations, Diaphragm Walls, Geotechnical Investigations, Ground Improvement, and other Geotechnical Designs in India and in USA.

 Asscoiate Professor, Indian Institute of Secinece Bangalore

Topic: Standard Penetration Tests N Values Corrections and Hammer Energy-Effect on Rebound, SBC and Shear Modulus

Dr. Anbazhagan Panjamani is serving as an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His research focuses on Geotechnical earthquake engineering, applied geophysics and railway Geotechnical engineering. He received the prestigious Endeavor Fellowship Award from the Australian Government in 2009. He received the IEI Young Engineers Award 2010-2011 and the ISES Order of Merit 2015 Award for Outstanding Work in Earthquake Science. He received the Indian Geotechnical Society Reviewer of the Year 2016 Award for his outstanding contribution to the Indian Geotechnical Journal. He is now serving as Research Advisor for Nan Yang Academy of Sciences, Singapore. Prof P. Anbazhagan is also served as a visiting professor for the third time in King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has published 94 journal papers; 101 conference papers, and 1 book & 6 chapters. He is serving as an expert member in National Committees and Editorial board/review members in journals.

 Professor and Chairman (Retd), Anna University, Chennai

Topic: Case study on failure of multistoried structures- Perspective of Geotechnical Engineer

Dr.K.Ilamparuthi was a Faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering,College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University Chennai with more than three decades of teaching and Research Experience. Retired as Senior Professor during May 2017. He obtained Ph.D from IIT Madras, India. He has received several awards for his research and his consultation works including prestigious Commonwealth Fellowship. He worked at the University of Livepool, UK for a period of 13 months and has visited several countries. He is an active consultant involved in several important projects of the State. Over the course of his career, he has published more than 200 research papers in journals and conference proceedings and co-editor for the book titled "Geotechnical Design and Practice-Selected Topics". He has guided 11 Ph.D students and 152 M.E students. He has been involved actively in the administrative running of the College of Engineering Guindy and has held various posts including Dean in-charge, Director (CDMM), Chairman (FCE), Head of the Department of Civil Engineering and Head of Division(SM&FE).

 Geotechnical Head, Sr. General Manager, Engineers India Limited

Topic: Tank Foundations in Refineries/Pertochemical Plants

Mr. V. K. Panwar is heading onshore Geotechnical group in Engineers India Limited (a premier consultancy organization providing consultancy services to Process Industry).

His areas of Specialization include all activities related to geotechnical engineering works, foundation design, ground improvement, slope stabilization, Earth dams etc.

He is responsible for providing complete geotechnical management for Refinery/Pertochemical/Non-Ferrous metallurgical/Cross-country Pipelines projects which includes designing, detailed engineering, co-ordination, preparation of front end engineering documents. Specialized in preparation of technical Specialized in preparation of technical specification & schedule of quantities for geotechnical/rock investigation works/piling works/ground improvement works and tender evaluation, supervision of various field & laboratory tests, review & finalization of the geotechnical reports, preparation of foundation recommendations/design philosophy, preparation of geotechnical inputs for Item rate/Package Tenders, evaluation of Bids, monitoring & supervising of construction activities/drawing review related to geotechnical works, providing technical assistance during execution, trouble shooting etc.

He is also a committee member of Bureau of Indian Standards.

 Professor, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

Topic: Dilatometer - an In-Situ Soil Exploration Tool for Problematic Ground Conditions vis-à-vis for Economizing Construction activities

Prof. Bandyopadhyay is engaged in teaching and research for about thirty years. Presently he is a Professor and former head of the Department of Construction Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His areas of specialization include Geotechnical In-Situ Testing and Geoenvironmental Engineering. He has held research assignments at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, the National University of Singapore and Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. He is the recipient of the ISSMGE Foundation Fellowship, London and the Indo- US Science and Technology Forum Fellowship (IUSSTF). He was awarded fellowship from the AICTE and DST under the faculty development programme. He received gold medal for the best paper award by the Institution of Engineers (India). He has been guiding nine numbers of Ph.D. students out of which four have been awarded the degree. He has to his credit completed research projects by the UGC and DST. He has published more than eighty papers in peer reviewed journals and international and national conferences. At present, Prof. Bandyopadhyay is chairing the Technical Committee 102 (TC102 - India Section) of the ISSMGE on Ground Property Characterization from In-Situ Tests and is a Core Member of the Asian Regional Technical Committee 7 (AsRTC7) of the ISSMGE on Thick Deltaic Deposits.

 Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.

Topic: Soil-atmosphere interaction : Relevance of unsaturated soil mechanics

Dr. S. Sreedeep is currently a Professor in the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.Tech. degrees from IIT Bombay and B.Tech. degree from Calicut University. His research interests include behavioural studies of unsaturated geomaterials, hazardous waste management, utilization of waste materials and bio-geotechnology. He has published more than 100 technical papers in international/national journals. He was a recipient of the Shamsher Prakash Research Award for Geotechnical Engineering in 2014. He is a member of ASCE, ASTM, IACMAG, IGS and TC 106 of ISSMGE.

 Professor and Dean Planning & Development, National Institute of Technology Srinagar, J&K

Topic: Application of Bio-engineering for stabilization of marginal soils: “An Eco-Sustainable and Eco-friendly Ground Improvement Technique”

Prof. (Dr.) B. A. Mir is among senior faculty of Civil Engineering Department of NIT Srinagar with more than two decades of teaching experience. Prof. Mir obtained his B.E. in civil engineering from REC Srinagar; M.B.A. from the Institute of Chartered Managers, IAS Academy Chennai; M.E. in geotechnical engineering from the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) Bangalore; and Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. After a brief spell of services in industry, Prof. Mir joined the Regional Engineering College (now NIT) Srinagar in May 1993. Prof. Mir has published more than 150 research papers in international journals and conferences and has been given many best paper awards. Dr. Mir has traveled to many countries abroad including Australia, Bangkok (Thailand), China, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom (UK) and presented his research papers. Dr. Mir has also chaired technical sessions in international conferences abroad and in India. Dr. Mir has provided consultancy services to more than 150 projects of national importance to various government and private agencies. Dr. Mir is also an active member of various scientific and professional societies and holds membership of Sr. M. IEEE (Delhi Section), MASCE (USA), MISSMGE (UK), MICE (UK), LMIGS, LMISTE, LMISCMS, LMISWE, LMICI, LMISRMTT, LMIE, C.Engg (I), UACSE (USA), and P. Engg (UK). Dr. Mir is currently the honorary secretary of the IGS Srinagar Chapter and Dean of the Planning and Development Department NIT Srinagar. Dr. Mir is also representing India as a technical committee (TC 216) member on "Frost Geotechnics" of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) for the years 2018–2021.