IGS Ballots Have Been Sent Via E-mail
The IGS, in accordance with its bylaws, will hold mid-term elections in 2020. IGS Members will have the opportunity to elect seven Council Members. Each of the elected members will serve a four-year term, beginning on 5 September 2020. It is a requirement for all Council Members to attend IGS Meetings during their tenure as a Council Member. In a typical year, the IGS Council meets once for a two-day period preceding a geosynthetics event. It is the responsibility of the IGS Council member to travel to these meetings and participate in the plenary and committee meetings. The IGS Council attempts to host the meetings in equal distribution around the world and based on the most suitable location in any given year.
The elected IGS Council members whose term of office concludes in 2020 are:
- Erol Güler, Turkey
- Boyd Ramsey, USA
- Kent von Maubeuge, Germany
- Martin Ziegler, Germany
- Francesco Fontana, Italy
- Hong Kwan (Hogan) Kim, Korea
- Dr. Junichi Koseki, Japan
The IGS bylaws stipulate that a Council Member may only be elected to two consecutive terms; hence, Erol Güler, Boyd Ramsey, and Kent von Maubeuge are not eligible for re-election to a Council Member seat. Each of the other members are eligible to stand for re-election to a council position.
Voting Deadline: 15 June 2020
Voting instructions have been sent via email to each eligible Individual IGS Member and each designated representative from the IGS Corporate Membership (*IGS Student Members have no voting rights). Each member may vote once and all voting will be done electronically. Please make sure you have submitted an accurate email contact to the IGS.
Announcement of Successful Candidates: 1 July 2020
IGS Members will be made aware of the successful candidates via email and website on 1 July 2020
First Meeting of the New IGS Council:
The first meeting for the new elected members will be at EuroGeo7 held in Warsaw, Poland September 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, IGS Council Members will be meeting virtually.
May you have any questions or would like any further information on the election process or the responsibilities involved with becoming an IGS Council Member, please contact the IGS Secretariat Manager, Terry Paulo at IGSsec@geosyntheticssociety.org
Candidates for IGS Council Term 2020 to 2024
Dr. Laura Carbone is environmental engineer with over 9 year experience in the field of geosynthetics.
She graduated with honors as environmental engineer at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria in Italy in 2010 and three years later she achieved a doctoral degree in geotechnical engineering through a joint supervision thesis between the University of Grenoble Alpes in France and the University of Reggio Calabria in Italy. In her research, she studied the interaction behavior of geosynthetic – geosynthetic interfaces on slopes under static and seismic loading conditions. She’s authored more than 30 scientific papers for peer journals, national and international conferences and holds two awards including the IGS Student Award 2012. Since 2015, she’s worked as a senior engineer at HUESKER Synthetic in Germany. She leads project designs in environmental engineering with a special interest for landfill designs, slope stability and the remediation of contaminated sites.
She’s actively served on the IGS for 8 years. She co-founded the IGS Young Members Committee in 2012, initially as Co-Chair and from 2017 as its current Chair. As Chair she contributed to formalize the organizational structure and succession plan, led the committee to increase membership and enhance involvement with IGS committees and local chapters. To increase awareness of the IGS and its next generation, she facilitated young member technical and networking sessions in liaison with other geotechnical associations. She organized the IGS Young Members Forum at 11ICG in Seoul and is co-organizing the Young Members Programs at GeoAmericas 2020 and Eurogeo 7. Along with Lucia Davila, she is running the IGS Student Award program 2018-2021.
From 2016 she’s been an invited member of the IGS Council and an active member of the Education Committee. She further supports IGS activities locally being also an invited member of the AGI-IGS Council and a member of the organizing committee of the IAGIG (Conference of Italian Young Geotechnical Engineers) as part of the Italian Geotechnical Society (AGI). She is member of the German Geotechnical Society (DGGT) and the German Section on Geosynthetics.
“I believe that the geosynthetic solutions play a fundamental role to solve today’s global environmental challenges in a sustainable way. Strengthened by my experience in the last four years as an invited member of the council, I am running for the post of council member to continue promoting the goals of the IGS, in particular facilitating greater involvement of the next generation of geosynthetics professionals.”
Dr. Ayşe Edincliler is the president of IGS Turkish Chapter since 2018. She is a full professor at the Department of Earthquake Engineering in Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) at Bogazici University (BU) in Istanbul. She received her PhD degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the Department of Civil Engineering at BU. She spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin between 1995 and 1996 before accepting a position as the environmental projects manager of the “Municipalities Union of Marmara and Its Straits” in Istanbul. Later on she served as the projects technical coordinator for the “International Union of Local Authorities, Section for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Region” between 1998-2001. In 2002, she joined BU as an assistant professor of Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering. She is also a lecturer at the department of civil engineering of Bogazici University since 1997.
She has been an IGS member and a member of the Executive Board of IGS-Turkish Chapter since 2004. She was on the organizing committee at seven national geosynthetics conferences since 2004. She acted as a vice president of IGS-Turkish Chapter between 2011 and 2018. She was also the chairwoman of Organizing Committee of the European Regional Conference of IGS, EuroGeo6, in 2016. At the EuroGeo6 Conference, she organized a specialty session on “Geosynthetics under Earthquake Shaking” as a co-organizer. She was the chair of the Eighth National Geosynthetics Conference in 2019.
Her main research interests are in the area of physical and numerical modeling of geosynthetic reinforced embankments, foundation reinforcement and geotechnical seismic isolation with geosynthetics under static and dynamic loadings. She also performed research on the tire waste-sand mixtures, geofoam, and EPS beads inclusions to improve the performance of the engineering structures. Especially, her researches include shaking table tests for simulation of seismic performance of engineering structures and studies to improve their seismic performances. She has over eighty scientific publications. At BU, she held numerous educational and administrative positions, including the director of the shake table laboratory since 2009, the Institutional Erasmus Coordinator of KOERI since 2008 and the member of the Institute Executive Board of KOERI since 2018.
She has been involved as a researcher and a project director to various national and international projects on the subject of geotechnical and seismic responses of engineering structures. She received several academic promotion awards from Bogazici University since 2005.
Francesco Fontana, 59 years old, is the Managing Director of Manifattura Fontana SpA, one of the eldest manufacturers of needle-punched geotextiles in Europe. With a juridical background, he has been active on the geosynthetics market since 1985 and has introduced many innovations for the applications of geotextiles and geocomposites.
He has taken part in the standardization activities in UNI, CEN and ISO since nearly 25 years; he is currently leading the Italian delegation in the technical committee CEN TC/189. Within this organism he has been appointed to coordinate the working group for the revision of the market rules in Europe for geosynthetics.
He is on the boards of AssINGeo, the Italian Association of Geosynthetics Entrepreneurs, for more than 10 years, and of EAGM, the European Association of Geosynthetics Manufacturers, for 6 years. In his current term on the IGS Council, he has been active in the Corporate Members Committee, and task force group for the hiring of an Executive Director.
Francesco has attended all the meetings of the current IGS Council, and also serves on the board of AGI-IGS, the Italian IGS Chapter. He is also engaged in the organizing committee of ICG Rome 2022.
Dr. Chiwan Wayne Hsieh is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), Taiwan. He graduated in the Department of Hydraulic Engineering from the Feng-Chia University, Taiwan in 1980. He obtained a Ph.D. in the Department of Civil and Environment Engineering at the Penn State University, USA in 1991. From 1989 to 1992 he worked for Gannett Fleming Inc, Pennsylvania, USA, specialising in geotechnical design and construction of Highway projects. He has served as the council member for Chinese Taipei Chapter, IGS for eighteen years. Chiwan Hsieh is a Fellow of ASCE and CICHE, Council Member of the International Geosynthetics Society (2014-2020), Asian Committee Chair of IGS (2018-2022), and member of several international technical societies. He is the director of GSI-Taiwan as a member of Geosynthetic Institute (USA) since August 1999. He was elected as the International Board member of GSI on March 2009 & 2011.
Professor Hsieh’s research interests focus primarily on engineering behaviour and applications of geosynthetics and construction materials. His research has resulted in authoring/ co-authoring of more than 200 publications. He has been a keynote speaker at many conferences and symposia. In addition, he has established the Geosynthetic Laboratory at NPUST which is accredited by GAI and TAF for near 70 test methods. He has organized annual GSI-Taiwan (2006-2009) conference and 1st. GSI-Asia (2010) conference to promote the use of geosynthetic in the Asian region. He will be the chair of organizing committee for the 7th. Asian Regional Conference (GeoAsia7) of IGS hosting by the Chinese Taipei Chapter of IGS on March 1st-4th, 2021 at Taichung, Taiwan. He would like to take a more active role in the IGS and to promote the geosynthetics in various parts of the world.
Vivek Kapadia is currently a pivotal decision maker as Secretary to the Government of Gujarat State, India and Director in a mega Water Resources project – Sardar Sarovar Project. He obtained Masters Degrees in Civil Engineering and Law and P.G. Diplomas in Business Administration and Computer Applications. He is Fellow of The Institution of Engineers (India) and is also Vice – Chairman of the Ahmedabad Chapter of the Indian Geotechnical Society. He is the Vice President of the Indian Chapter of IGS. He has been instrumental in organizing many activities of the Chapter. He has contributed to many standards published by the Bureau of Indian Standards. He has directed several design, execution and policy making assignments in the field of water resources engineering and management which are published in the form of more than 100 papers in various journals and conferences around the world. He has extensively travelled in India and abroad for delivering inspiring lectures at academic and industrial fora. Remarkable improvements in water sector of Gujarat state brought out by him by innovatively designing and executing application of geosynthetics for hydraulic structures led to a prestigious Award presented by an institution – Central Board of Irrigation and Power established by the Government of India in 1927. His unique works are being published as a book by the Indian Chapter of IGS. He strives for spearheading geosynthetic technologies in Indian mega projects by formulating congenial policies and presenting case studies for wider consumption.
Dr. Jacek Kawalec is chartered geotechnical expert with 26 years of engineering experience including 22 years of research & teaching position firstly as Assistant (1994-2000) and as Professor Assistant (2000-2016) at Geotechnical Department of Silesian University of Technology (SUoT) in Poland. He obtained both MSc. in Civil Engineering (1994) and PhD in Geotechnics (2000) at SUoT.
Jacek is a member of IGS since 2005 and his activity over these years includes membership in council in terms 2014-2018, 2018-2020, Presidency position of Polish Chapter of IGS which resulted in organization of the Educate the Educator” course in Poland, just a second IGS ETE event globally.
His current activity at IGS council is shared between running IGS Technical Committee – Stabilization as Chair of TC and preparation of next Regional EUROGEO-7 Conference to be held in Warsaw in September 2020. Jacek is Chairman of Eurogeo7 and leader of the Scientific Committee. He was leading the organization of successful first TC-Stabilization workshop which took place last October in Prague.
Other industry activities of Jacek are with ISO TC221 “Geosynthetics”, CEN TC 189 “Geosynthetics” where he represents PKN-Poland and with ISSMGE where he is a nominated member of TC 218 “Reinforced fill structures”.
Jacek is an author or co-author of over 100 papers on geotechnics and geosynthetics published journals or presented at conferences, member of Scientific Committees for many conferences, paper reviewer and subject expert.
His current position within industry where he serves as Director of Technology for Eastern Hemisphere for Tensar International allows him fully utilize his research experiences in practice.
Hong Kwan (Hogan) Kim is the Executive Director for the geosynthetics testing department at FITI Testing & Research Institute, Seoul, Korea. He obtained his Ph. D in Textile Engineering from Cheonnam Nationally University in 2004. His experience covers a diverse range of developing geosynthetics test methods, researching life time prediction of geomembranes for landfill liners and manufacturing geotextiles for separation for the past 20 years. He is recognized as an expert researcher of geosynthetic materials for MQC/MQA in Korea and has published over 60 research papers as author or co-author and 3 books. His main interests are focused on evaluation of geosynthetics materials, development test equipments and standardization of test methods. He has also served as the vice president of Korean Geosynthetics Society and the program committee of 11th ICG in 2018. He currently is a technical committee member for TC221(Geosynthetics) of Korean Industrial Standards, ASTM D35 and ISO TC221.
Dr. Huabei Liu has been carrying out research on geosynthetic-reinforced soil technology for more than 20 years, and has been an active member of IGS since 2009. His research areas cover soil-geosynthetic interaction, long-term response of reinforced soil structures, and dynamic behavior of reinforced soil structures, the outcomes of which have been materialized as more than 60 journal papers in Geotextiles and Geomembranes, Geosynthetics International, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Geotechnique, among others. Dr.Liu has taught soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering at Tsinghua University, City College of New York (CCNY), and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). Currently he is a full professor and associate dean of civil engineering at HUST. He has been an active advocator of geosynthetic reinforced soil technology in China, which has one of the largest geosynthetic markets in the world. Since he came back to China in 2013, he has been promoting the applications of GRS structures in earthquake-active areas in China. His research also advances the use of locally-available fill materials for GRS applications. At present, he serves as the associate chair of the reinforced soil committee under the China Technological Association on Geosynthetics (CTAG). He is a committee member of TC 218 “Reinforced fill materials” of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), and serves on the editorial boards of three refereed journals.
Dr. Satyendra Mittal is Professor & Coordinator (Head) of Geotechnical Engineering Group of Civil Engineering Deptt., IIT Roorkee. Dr. Mittal is author of 3 technical books namely: (1) “Soil Testing for Engineers” (2) “Pile Foundations Design and Construction” and (3) Ground Improvement Engg. He is author of over 167 technical papers published in national and international journals and conferences. He is recipient of various international & national awards. Some of the awards are :“Best Trainee Officer” awarded by Hangzhou Hydro Power Centre China, “Man of the Year” award by American Biographical Institute, USA, ISTE National Award for guiding best M. Tech thesis in the country ISCMS-Tata-Steel award for publishing best technical paper in Civil Engg., IGS best paper award (2012) and IGS-Resham Singh award (2013), Uttarakhand Best Engineer Award from IEI Uttarakhand State Centre Dehradun (2015), Outstanding Engineer award (2017) from IEI Roorkee Centre for practical research & Field Applications, NUJ (India) Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Award – 2019 for technical contributions. He has also prepared a web course on Soil Dynamics. Dr. Mittal, is also the Fellow of The Institution of Engineers (India).
Dr. Mittal’s research activities are “Ground Improvement Techniques”, “Soil Dynamics” and basic geotechnical engg. He also prepared a technical film on “Reinforced Earth Technology”. He is also member of reviewers’ panel of American Society of Civil Engg., Canadian journal, IGS journal and Koreans journals on Civil Engg.
Dr. Satyendra .Mittal is widely travelled to Iraq, Singapore, China, USA, Japan, Nepal and whole of Europe on various technical assignments. Dr. Mittal has guided nearly 60 Master’s thesis and 7 Ph.D. thesis in I.I.T. Roorkee. Currently he is guiding 5 Ph.D. thesis. He has completed many research projects and provided consultancy to over 500 projects related to Geotechnical Engg. His innovative design of Soil Nailing for 17m deep basement (14m underwater) for Supreme Court new complex in Delhi and 3 tunnels designs by Soil Nailing techniques. Currently he is also member of Technology Mission of Indian Railways, and designing the rail track for bullet trains. He is also Editor of ISET JOURNAL of Earthquake Technology.
Dr. Mittal is member of several professional bodies like Indian Geotechnical Society, Indian Roads Congress, Indian Water Resources Society, International Geosynthetics Society, ISET etc. He organized 25 short term courses national & international, 11 national conferences with a wide participation from India and abroad.
Dr. Yoshihisa Miyata is a Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, National Defense Academy of Japan. He received his doctoral degree from Kyushu University in 1999. Dr. Miyata has research interests in a variety of topics relating to soil reinforcement, geo-environment and geo-risk engineering. He has authored or co-authored more than 220 papers in referred journals and conference proceedings and more than 120 technical articles in academic publication. Dr. Miyata is the vice chair of IGS, Japan chapter. He is also a board member of Geosynthetics International, secretary and member of technical committees on soil reinforcement in IGS and ISSMGE. He has contributed to the success of IS-Kyushu series and IGS world and regional conferences as an organizing or scientific committee member. He had been a representative member of Japan for technical standards on geosynthetics during 2004-2015. Dr. Miyata has received many awards and accolades, including the best paper award of ICE Geotechnical Engineering (2017), Geosynthetic International (2015), Soils and Foundations (2013), Canadian Geotechnical Journal (2008), and Geosynthetics Engineering Journal (2008), along with the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) Service Award (2018), JGS Achievement Award (2016) and IGS Gold Medal (2010).
Jabulile Msiza has near 15 years’ experience working with geosynthetics at Jones & Wagener Engineering and Environmental Consultants in South Africa. During her tenure, she has steadily become the leader of the Waste Department, while enhancing her skills as an engineer and leader through post-graduate study. She leads a young dynamic team of engineers, through which her passion for geosynthetics is imparted.
Hazardous waste facilities are one of the most complicated applications of geosynthetics; Jabulile has been involved with the design of barrier and capping systems of many of these facilities. This has provided her with a base of practical knowledge in the application of geosynthetics in landfill design.
By doing a Master of Business Administration Degree shortly after completing two honours degrees in geotechnical and environmental engineering, Jabulile has poised her theoretical training for ideal delivery of engineering design in the consulting environment. This balance of practical experience and theoretic training allows for well-rounded decision making and service delivery.
Jabulile started contributing to company human resources from early in her career, showing a natural ability to deal with people in the consulting industry. In 2013, with her appointment as an Associate of the company, she became the J&W Bursary Fund manager. Her HR Portfolio role became formalised in 2016 with her appointment as a Technical Director and thus member of the Management Committee. This passion for growth of junior engineering professionals was mirrored in her contribution to the IGS when she joined the local chapter committee (GIGSA) in 2009 and immediately started arranging lectures at Universities to spread her knowledge of geosynthetics to young graduates.
Due to her will to drive and grow the use of geosynthetics in South Africa, Jabulile was elected by GIGSA to deliver the presentation bid for the 12th International Conference of Geosynthetics in 2022. Although the bid was unsuccessful, the potency of Jabulile’s delivery was an indication of her resolve to make an impact in the local industry.
Recognition by her peers of her growth as an engineer and contributions to the industry resulted in early registration as a Professional Engineer, and later in 2017 when she was awarded the prestigious Consulting Engineers South Africa Young Engineer of the year award.
The IGS Council can only benefit from the unique blend of Jabulile’s passion for the growth of geosynthetics and focus of development of young professionals. She will surely be an asset to the society.
Dr. Timothy D. Stark is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA. Dr. Stark has been conducting research on geosynthetics and in particular geomembranes, geotextiles, and drainage composites for the last twenty-five (25) years. His research on the static and seismic stability of geosynthetic-lined slopes and containment facilities has led to a better understanding of design geosynthetic interface strengths, the shear behavior of geosynthetic/geosynthetic and soil/geosynthetic interfaces, three-dimensional slope stability analyses for geosynthetic-lined slopes, the importance of interim slope conditions in containment operations, and geosynthetic durability. In the last ten (10) years he has been studying the effects of elevated temperatures in various types of containment facilities and the long-term durability of geosynthetics with and without UV exposure. Dr. Stark has received a number of awards for his research, teaching, and service activities including the: 2019 George H. Norman Medal from ASCE, Best Paper Award in the Performance of Constructed Facilities Journal, ASCE, 2017, Best Paper in Geosynthetics International Journal, 2016, 2015 James M. Hoover Lecture at Iowa State University, Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, ASCE, 2013 and 1998, and three D18 Standards Development Awards, ASTM, 2014, 2011, 2002.
Dr. Stark is Technical Director of the Fabricated Geomembrane Institute (FGI), which is an industry-sponsored research organization based at the UIUC investigating factory fabricated geomembranes and geosynthetics for containment and other applications. The FGI has 42 members, which includes manufacturers, installers, consultants, regulators, equipment suppliers, and testing entities. Dr. Stark has taught numerous short courses, webinars, technical presentations, Educate the Educator (EtE) programs, and workshops on the use of geosynthetics in a variety of applications.
After serving as vice-president of IGS-North America, Dr. Stark is looking forward to expanding his involvement with the IGS and contributing to the global growth of geosynthetics. He is particularly interested in furthering the educational mission of the IGS by helping establish educational programs that will serve different segments and geographical areas of the geosynthetics industry. In particular, Dr. Stark plans to provide platforms, e.g., webinars, training videos, podcasts, workshops, and short courses, for: (1) academicians and practitioners to participate in IGS educational programs and (2) development, design, testing, installation, and long-term performance of geosynthetics in a variety of applications and countries. To achieve this goal he is eager to use his experience, contacts, engineering background, and experience to develop these educational platforms for the IGS.
Dr. Erol Tutumluer is a Professor specializing in Transportation Geotechnics in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Professor Tutumluer holds Paul F. Kent Endowed Faculty Scholar and serves as the Director of International Programs. Dr. Tutumluer has been active in geosynthetics engineering research, education, and practice for more than 20 years. He has research interests and expertise in characterization of pavement and railroad track geomaterials, i.e., subgrade soils and base/ballast unbound aggregates, soil/aggregate stabilization and geosynthetics. He has completed major research studies related to the subgrade restraint and granular base/ballast stabilization applications of geogrids and geotextiles. Dr. Tutumluer has served as an investigator on over 100 research projects and graduated 22 PhD and 44 MS students, and authored/co-authored over 300 peer reviewed publications from his research projects. Dr. Tutumluer is a member of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) and serves on the Technical Committee on Stabilization. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Transportation Geotechnics Elsevier journal and the current Chair of the ISSMGE Technical Committee 202 on Transportation Geotechnics. Dr. Tutumluer is a member of the ASCE T&DI and Geo-Institute and served as the Chair of the ASCE Geo-Institute’s Pavements Committee in 2006-2012. He is a member of the AREMA Committee 1 on Ballast. Dr. Tutumluer is an active affiliate of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and serves as the Chair of TRB’s AFP00 Geological and Geoenvironmental Engineering Section. He is a member of the AFS70 Geosynthetics Committee and served as the Chair of TRB’s AFP70 Aggregates Committee in 2011-2016. Dr. Tutumluer was the 2000 recipient of the TRB’s Fred Burgraff award for Excellence in Transportation Research; he also received TRB’s Geology and Earth Materials Section Best Paper Awards in 2009, 2012 and 2019, and TRB’s Soil Mechanics Section Best Paper Award in 2016. He was selected and honored with Yangtze River Scholar Award by China Ministry of Education in 2016 and Qiushi Distinguished Professor title by Zhejiang University in China in 2019. Dr. Tutumluer is the 2020 recipient of the ASCE T&DI James Laurie Prize in recognition of his career accomplishments for promoting Transportation Geotechnics field.
Dr. Chao Xu is a Professor of Civil Engineering of Tongji University, Shanghai, China and is a co-opted member of IGS Council. He is currently the Chairman of IGS Chinese Chapter and the Vice President of China Technology Association of Geosynthetics, a local geosynthetic organization in China. During the past five years, he had actively attended the IGS council meetings and contributed in various committees of the IGS, bridging the IGS and Chinese geosynthetic community. He prepared and organized the first Educate the Educator Program in Asia，in August 2016 with the guide of the IGS education committee and support of IGS members. As one of organizers, he hosted the International Workshop on Geosynthetic-Reinforced and Pile-Supported Embankments in Shanghai, China under the auspices of the IGS Chinese Chapter. Dr. Xu has been a member of IGS for more than 15 years. He guide the compiling of geosynthetics textbook for undergraduates in China, and his course on Geosynthetics is popular elective course for students at Tongji University. He has presided over 4 national fund projects on Geosynthetic reinforcements and guided tens of research students on the topics of Geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) technology. Apart from the academic works, he also provides consultancy services to geosynthetic industry.
Dr. Kasia Zamara is a geotechnical engineer with experience working for international consultancies and contractors in Poland, UK and NZ. Recently Kasia has joined forces with the manufacturing side of the geosynthetic industry. This sees her connecting with people and projects across Europe, Asia, Australasia, South Africa and North America.
Kasia obtained a Doctor of Engineering degree in 2013 working for Dr Russell Jones and Prof Neil Dixon on geosynthetic multi-layered lining systems applications in containments. This shaped her advocacy for cooperation between academia and industry which has seen her lead numerous R&D projects in the UK and NZ whilst working as a geotechnical engineer.
She has been an active member of IGS since 2009, organising IGS UK chapter seminars and the first IGS seminars in NZ in 2017 with support from the Australian Chapter of IGS.
Her international experience has made her realise how geosynthetic application is often misunderstood or design methods misinterpreted. She has observed the gradual introduction of geosynthetic education at various courses and lectures, however she believes further education is required to give geosynthetic products more appeal as a primary construction method.
As a council member she will encourage more education for designers, regulators and constructors on the accurate use of geosynthetic products.
Outside the working hours Kasia enjoys sailing, good music and an interesting read.
Helmut Zanzinger got his Dipl.-Ing. degree in geotechnical engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany in 1988. Then he worked as a researcher and consultant at LGA Geotechnical Institute for 14 years until he moved to SKZ – German Plastics Center, an independent testing and research company in Germany. He is currently the head of the ISO/IEC 17020 accredited inspection body of SKZ.
He has been active in the field of geoenvironmental and geosynthetics testing for more than 30 years with specialization in laboratory testing operations. His activities over the years include development of new testing procedures and methods, CQA on landfill lining systems and CE auditing worldwide.
His extensive research activities concentrated in the large-scale loading of drainage pipes, long-term internal shear strength of GCLs, cyclic loading of geogrids, strain hardening on PE-HD geomembranes, high-pressure autoclave testing on geosynthetics, testing and long-term monitoring of surface erosion control products. He published more than 150 technical papers and held more than 100 lectures.
He serves as an expert in several committees like “Geosynthetics in Geotechnics and Hydraulic Engineering” (DGGT), “Geosynthetics in Landfills” (BAM), “Geomembranes for Storage Lagoons, Secondary Containment and other Containment Applications” (DIBt) and “Geosynthetics for Surface Erosion Control” (FGSV).
He has dedicated much of his career to the standardization work – serving as an active member of DIN, CEN and ISO committees on geosynthetics for 25 years and also as convenor of CEN/TC189 on terminology, chairman of CEN/TC189 project groups on surface erosion control and on bituminous geosynthetic barriers. For six years, he has chaired the Group of Notified Bodies for the CE-certification of geosynthetics. He has received several awards including the “Beuth-Denkmünze” from DIN in 2019, a DIN medal for outstanding achievements.
He is an IGS member for more than 25 years. Currently serves on the board of SVG, the Swiss IGS Chapter.
Between 1994 and 2010 he has chaired three successful International conferences on “Geosynthetic Clay Liners” to promote the use of GCLs. He has organized a series of seven International “Geosynthetics Middle East (GeoME)” conferences in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Mr. Zanzinger would like to contribute to the more intensive and competent applications of geosynthetics as durable and long lasting products which are doing great in the sense of sustainability. He sees a strong need to convey required information to the users who are sceptical on the usage of plastic materials these days.
Dr. Yan-feng Zhuang was born in 24th Oct. 1978 in China. He received his Ph.D. in 2005 for his work on Electro-Kinetic Geosynthetics (EKG). He won the IGS Student Award 2006 in Yokohama, Japan; He won the Young IGS Member Achievement Awards 2014 in Berlin, Germany. He is currently an associate professor in Wuhan University, China.
Dr. Yan-feng Zhuang dedicates himself to research and application of geosynthetics. His major contribution on geosynthetics is exploring a novel category of geosynthetics, Electro-Kinetic Geosynthetics (EKG). His work includes development of patented and mass producible EKG products (E-board and E-tube), smart DC power source for application of eletrokinetic technique in geotechnical and environmental engineering, novel electro-osmosis theories (Energy Analysis Model and Electric Charge Accumulation Theory) and design method based on these theories.
Dr. Yan-feng Zhuang is active in international network on geosynthetics and he is active to bridge the communication between China and the IGS. He is currently secretary-general of Chinese Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society (CCIGS). In the environmental technique seminar hosted by GRI and TRI in Suzhou, China in 2014, he provided simultaneous interpretation for the presentations. He collaborates with Newcastle University upon Tyne and EK company in the UK on EK technique and EKG products. He cooperates with RWTH Aachen and TU Freiberg in Germany and co-published the book “Eletrokinetics in Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering”. He dedicates himself to flourishing the application of EKG and he composed the electro-osmosis chapters for Technical Code for Ground Treatment of Hydraulic Fill (GB/T 51064-2015, in Chinese) and Design & Construction Guidelines for Geosynthetics (Drainage and Filtration Volume, in Chinese).
Electro-Kinetic Geosynthetics and EK technique are very overlapping research areas and Dr. Yan-feng Zhuang has also broad interest and background in both science and technology, e.g. geotechnical engineering, water and waste water engineering, clay minerals, soil remediation and waste treatment, etc. He continues to work on geosynthetics and to explore new possibilities of geosynthetics in these overlapping areas linked to EK technique.
