Dear colleagues of the rock mechanics community, It is a great honour and privilege for me to approach all of you in the position of ISRM President. In these last 50 years, since its foundation our Society has faced an important growth. Under the leadership of the last three ISRM Presidents and based on the important role and commitment of the former Presidents, our Society achieved a big increase of individual members, having now nearly 8,000. There has been an impressive increase of roughly 3,000 members since 2003. We could say that this jump in membership is due in part to the modernization process initiated by Past President Nielen van der Merwe. This was made possible by the worldwide spread and use of the internet by our members. The strong contribution of Dr. Luís Lamas to implement our communication by internet is acknowledged. So the Board started to communicate more easily. Past President Prof. Hudson took the modernization process very seriously and much progress was made under his tenure, followed by the impressive work of Prof. Xia-Ting Feng and a successful period of strong achievements. We consider that it is now necessary to consolidate all that has already been done in these last 12 years during this Cycle of Modernization. Some of our main tasks will be to implement the proposals made by the last Board that are still on-going. Just this represents a strong challenge, now resting on the shoulders of our new Board. Even if the goal of this new ISRM Board will be to go ahead and succeed with new achievements, we need to be realistic and recognize that growing after such a rich period with almost 3.000 new members will be difficult. Certainly, there is an open door for growth in the number of corporate members and we intend to focus on that. Compared to the total number of members we have only few corporate members, the majority being from Asia and Europe. There are also some important subjects to think about, like the Technical Oversee Committee (TOC). Based on the increased number of our Technical Commissions, a Committee to accompany their work has been very useful. Now there are 18 Technical Commissions on-going and some new topics are being suggested. We believe that the Technical Commissions are the heart of our technical and scientific development and that some new initiatives will appear soon adding proposals for the creation of new Commisions. For instance, a commission on Fault Zones - there is a huge number of difficulties and delays caused by fault zones in our engineering works in all areas of our activities, such as dam engineering, tunnelling, mining, radioactive waste repositories and so on. A Commission on Fault Zones could give useful suggestions in many areas of our activities. A Commission on Flow Models also, would be very useful. That means 3-D input data (testing) and 3-D modelling, both deterministic and stochastic approaches, can be the objective of one or more Commissions. The Education Fund is also considered one of our priorities. Our main task will be to raise funds for this recently created Committee. We know this will be difficult because of the financial difficulties in many countries. However, nothing is impossible and we are going to continue this effort of the last Board. Another important concern will be the Young Members Activities. We intend to organize events to continue to attract the attention of young members to our Society. The Board will encourage activities such as the Rock Bowl and the Students Night, which proved to be very successful to bring together young members. The On-line Lectures are important to disseminate technical knowledge among our members and we will continue to encourage those Lectures. Concerning interaction with Sister Societies, our participation in the Board Meetings of the Federation of International Geo-Engineering Societies (FedIGS) of which ISRM is a member together with the ISSMGE, IAEG and IGS) has been fruitful. So, those will be some of our activities and goals in these next years and we hope to have the contribution of all National Groups for the enhance of our Society. I wish all of you the best. Eda Quadros, ISRM President 2015-2019 |
The 13th Congress of the ISRM took place in May in Montréal, Canada. At its conclusion, the 2011-2015 Board's term of office has ended. So, it is time now to look back on the past four years and consider what has been achieved. The ISRM Board 2011-2015 was very active and has implemented a large number of modernization initiatives, which resulted in a considerable development of the Society. Some are mentioned here:
Xia-Ting Feng, ISRM President 2011-2015 |
The ISRM held its Council meeting in Montréal, Canada, on 10 May, in conjunction with the 13th ISRM International Congress on Rock Mechanics, organised by the Canadian ISRM National Group. 49 out of the 59 National Groups were either present or represented.  The Council was also attended by Past Presidents Professors Walter Wittke, Ted Brown, Charles Fairhurst, Shunsuke Sakurai, Nielen van der Merwe and John Hudson, chairmen of several ISRM Commissions and candidates to the new Board. In this unique occasion a group photo was taken of the Past Presidents, the 2011-2015 Board members and the members of the newly elected Board. Membership The ISRM has 7,797 individual members and 147 corporate members, belonging to 59 National Groups. Bulgaria, Romania, Zimbabwe and Iceland joined the Society since the last meeting. This represents an increase of 20% in the number of individual members and corporate members, and an increase of 23% in the number of the National Groups since the last Congress in 2011. 40% of the members come from Europe and 32% from Asia, which has been the fastest growing region in the recent years. Election of the Board of the ISRM for 2015-2019 Following the election of Dr Eda Freitas de Quadros from Brazil for ISRM President 2015-2019 two years ago, the Council elected in Montréal the six Regional Vice Presidents: Mr William Joughin (South Africa) for Africa, Prof. Seokwon Jeon (Korea) for Asia, Mr Stuart Read (New Zealand) for Australasia, Prof. Charlie Li (Norway) for Europe, Prof. Doug Stead (Canada) for North America and Prof. Sérgio Fontoura (Brazil) for South America. The newly elected Board met immediately after the Council to elect Mr William Joughin as the 1st Vice President, to appoint Dr Petr Konicek (Czech Republic), Prof. He Manchao (China) and Prof. Nirikazu Shimizu (Japan) as Vice Presidents at Large and to reappoint Dr Luís Lamas as Secretary General. |
The Board, at its 2014 meeting in Sapporo, approved the names of the 10 new Fellows of the ISRM. The induction ceremony took place during the ISRM Congress 2015, in a formal ceremony at the beginning of the banquet. This grade of membership is conferred on individuals who have achieved outstanding accomplishment in the field of rock mechanics and who have contributed to the professional community through the ISRM.
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Two new awards were approved by the Board to stimulate the work of the ISRM National Groups and Commissions. For the first time the winners were selected during the ISRM Congress 2015 and the prizes were conferred during the closing ceremony.. The Best Performing National Group Award was given to China and Singapore. The Outstanding Commission Award was given to the Commission on Testing Methods and to the Commission on Crustal Stresses and Earthquakes. |
The Rocha Award Committee selected the winner of the Rocha Medal 2016, Chia Weng Boon (Malaysia) with the thesis "Distinct Element Modelling of Jointed Rock Masses: Algorithms and their Verification" (Univ. Oxford) and two runners-up Silvia Duca (Italy) with the thesis "Design of an Experimental Procedure and Set Up for the Detection of Ice Segregation Phenomena in Rock by Acoustic Emissions" (Polit. di Torino) and Zhang Qianbing (China) with the thesis "Mechanical Behaviour of Rock Materials under Dynamic Loading" (EPFL). The award will be given during the 2016 ISRM International Symposium in Turkey. Dr Chia Weng Boon will give the Rocha Lecture during the 2016 ISRM International Symposium in Cappadocia, Turkey, 29-31 August 2016, where the medal will be awarded to the winner and the runners-up wiil receive their certificates. Nominations for the Rocha medal 2017 shall be received at the ISRM Secretariat by 31 December 2015. Click here to download the announcement. |
The 13th Congress of the ISRM (ISRM Congress 2015) was held in the Congress and Exhibition Centre (Palais des Congrès) in Montréal, Québec, Canada, 10-14 May 2015. Over 630 delegates from 42 countries participated in this prestigious congress, held for the 2nd time in Montréal. The ISRM Congress 2015 was organized jointly by CARMA, the Canadian National Group of the ISRM, and CIM, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, with the support of ARMA and McGill, Queen's and Toronto Universities – each partner having contributed immensely to the successful delivery of this memorable Congress. The Congress general Chair was Professor Ferri Hassani with the Congress being co-chaired by professors James Archibald and John Hadjigeorgiou. Click here to read the full report of the 13th ISRM Congress. |
For the tenth online lecture the ISRM invited Prof. Jean Sulem and the title is "Multiphysics couplings and stability of fault zones". The lecture will be broadcast on 13 July, at 10 a.m. GMT. The lecture will remain online so that those unable to attend at this time will be able to do it later. As usual, the attendees will be able to ask questions to the lecturer by e-mail during the subsequent 48 hours. Jean Sulem is Professor at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, and Research Director. He is leading the Geotechnical Group CERMES at Laboratoire Navier. His research interests are related to Bifurcation Theory applied to stability and strain localisation analyses, Constitutive Modelling of Geomaterials, Experimental Rock Mechanics, Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Behaviour of Geomaterials with applications to Tunnelling, Petroleum Engineering, Deep Geological Storage and Fault Mechanics. He has published 2 books: "Bifurcation Analysis in Geomechanics" with Ioannis Vardoulakis, in 1995; and "Meso-scale Shear Physics in Earthquake and Landslide Mechanics" with Yossef Hatzor and Ioannis Vardoulakis in 2009; and more than 75 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has given several keynote lectures in major rock mechanics conferences (such as EUROCK 2010 in Lausanne, Switzerland; ISRM Congress 2015 in Montreal, Canada) and numerous other invited talks in Europe, America and Australia. Jean Sulem is also a member of the Advisory Board of several scientific journals: Acta Geotecnica, ASCE International Journal of Geomechanics, Géotechnique, Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. The previous ISRM Online Lectures were given by Prof. Wulf Schubert, Prof. John Hudson Dr. Pierre Dufaut, Prof. Eduardo Alonso. Dr John Read and Prof. Herbert Einstein Prof. Shunsuke Sakurai, Prof. Resat Ulusay and Prof. Dick Stacey. All the ISRM Online Lectures remain available on the ISRM website in a dedicated webpage (click to open in a new window). |
Following an initiative of the ISRM Board, supported by the Chinese National Group, a Glossary with rock mechanics terminology in different languages has been compiled during the past few months and is available on the ISRM website. An initial list of 1000 English rock mechanics terms were selected. five new languages have recently been added to the eight original ones. Currently the following languages are available: Chinese, English, Finnish, German, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish and Turkish. Translations in other languages are arriving to the Secretariat and they will be added. A dedicated platform was implemented on the website for the Rock Mechanics Glossary. To search, choose the original language and insert the term. If a correspondence is found, click on the adequate term to see its translation in the available languages.
Follow this link to test the glossary and leave your feedback. |
This book provides a new, necessary and valuable approach to the consideration of risk in underground engineering projects constructed within rock masses. There are Chapters on uncertainty and risk, rock engineering systems, rock fractures and rock stress, the design of a repository for radioactive waste, plus two major case examples relating to the headrace tunnels and caverns for a hydroelectric project. These Chapters highlight in detail the authors' new rock engineering risk approach, especially how monitoring during construction can significantly reduce the construction risks. The book is particularly timely given the current increasing emphasis on geo-engineering safety, accountability and sustainability—which requires stricter attention to risk and greater reliability than ever before. Written by two eminent authors, the two most recent past-Presidents of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM), this modern and well-illustrated guide on Rock Engineering Risk complements the authors' previous 2011 book on Rock Engineering Design, also published by CRC Press. The book will benefit engineers, contractors, clients, researchers, lecturers and advanced students who are concerned with rock engineering projects in civil, mining, geological and construction engineering worldwide. Click here to visit the ISRM Book Series web page. ISRM members are entitled a 40% discount on the ISRM Book Series and a 30% discount on all CRC Press books. Contact the Secretariat to obtain the discount codes. |
"Rock Engineering Risk" by John A. Hudson and Xia-Ting Feng, past Presidents of the ISRM, is the 1st book of the ISRM book series, which includes 20 titles to be published in the near future. The book was published by CRC Press and was launched during the ISRM Congress 2015. 
Springer will start a new journal titled "Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources" in 2015. The journal publishes original research, new development and case studies in the field of geomechanics and geophysics with special application to energy and resources in the subsurface Earth. Papers published in 2015 and 2016 will be freely available on line. For further information on the G4 journal click here to visit the journal website. |
New Journal related to Rock Mechanics
On behalf of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM), Turkish National Society for Rock Mechanics cordially invites the international community to attend the 2016 ISRM International Symposium "EUROCK 2016″. The symposium will be held between 29 and 31 August 2016 in Cappadocia (Turkey) which is one of the seven sites included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO and also a natural and historical rock engineering laboratory. The theme of the symposium is "Rock Mechanics & Rock Engineering: From the Past to the Future". The symposium intends to cover all aspects of rock mechanics and rock engineering from theories to engineering practices, emphasizing the future direction of rock engineering technologies. This event will be an excellent opportunity to promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences in various areas of the rock mechanics and rock engineering, as well as to visit many historical sites including old and modern rock structures caved in the soft tuffs of Cappadocia. The venue of the symposium, Ürgüp-Nevşehir, is located in the heart of the Cappadocia Region with convenient access to restaurants, hotels, historical sites and national museums. We believe that you will also enjoy participating to post-symposium excursions in the Cappadocia Region and İstanbul. In the spirit of traditional Turkish hospitality, it is our pleasure to bid you welcome to Turkey, a bridge between Europe and Asia, and hope that your stay here will be intellectually and professionally stimulating and rewarding. We look forward to meeting you in Cappadocia in August 2016. Don't forget to submit an abstract by 15 September 2015. For further information click here to visit the conference website. Prof. Reşat ULUSAY |
 The Austrian Society for Geomechanics has the pleasure to invite you to the ISRM Regional Symposium EUROCK 2015 "Future Development of Rock Mechanics" to be held 7-10 October 2015, in conjunction with the 64th Geomechanics Colloquium in Salzburg, the city where the International Society for Rock Mechanics was founded in 1962. The Geomechanics Colloquium in Salzburg since its initiation in 1951 has always been a perfect and distinguished meeting place for researchers and practitioners. The success of this concept not only shows in the continuous meetings over more than 60 years, but also in the attendance of regularly around 1000 participants.  The Symposium will be held at the Salzburg Congress, which is located very close to the center of the city. Salzburg itself is famous for its unique scenery and atmosphere. The four plenary sessions will be on the topics "Long-term behavior of civil structures in rock", "Tunneling under challenging conditions", "Mass movements" and "Rock mechanical aspects of excavation". Seven parallel sessions and seven workshops on specific topics will also be organised.  Poster sessions will accompany the oral presentations. For the technical exhibition more than 50 booths are available. Due to strong pre-bookings of regular exhibitors only limited space is available. For accompanying persons an exciting program will be organized. The social program includes a dinner and a chamber concert. On Saturday, October 10th, technical visits to important rock engineering sites and tunnels will be organized. |
SAIG, the Argentinean Society of Geotechnical Engineering is pleased to host the VIII South American Congress on Rock Mechanics (SCRM), a Regional Symposium for South America of the ISRM, to be held in Buenos Aires from 15 to 18 November 2015.  The previous South American Congresses on Rock Mechanics have been held in Colombia (1982, 2006), Brazil (1986, 1998), Venezuela (1990), Chile (1994) and Peru (2010). After having traveled much of the continent it is the first time that this congress takes place in Argentina. The VIII South American Congress on Rock Mechanics (SCRM) will be organised together with Buenos Aires 2015 will be held at the Hilton Hotel, in one of the most fashionable and exclusive areas of the city with access to all major tourist attractions and very good communication with domestic and international airports. Our goal and commitment is to produce a meeting that strengthens the connection between academics and practitioners from North and South America. The conference topics are "Rock mechanics for Mining", "Rock mechanics for Infrastructure", "Rock mechanics for Oil & Gas", "Testing methods & monitoring", "Design & analysis methods" and "Hydrogeology of rock mass".  We hope to see you in Buenos Aires 2015 to celebrate together this great event for our profession. Prof. Alejo O. Sfriso, President Prof. Ricardo J. Rocca, Secretary VIII SCRM Buenos Aires 2015 |
The Workshop occurs in two full days, divided in five sessions devoted to the main Conference topics, and including keynote lectures, selected contributions, and open discussion. Two technical visits take place in the following days at the end of the Workshop. Keynote Lectures & Oral Sessions:
The technical visits will include several sites of both natural, archaeological and technical interest; they take place:
The deadline for accepting the early bird registration is July 15th. For further information click here to visit the Workshop website. |
The Symposium consists of interesting keynote presentations, parallel sessions and technical excursions. Post-symposium excursions will be arranged to Olkiluoto nuclear waste repository site (as first in the world!) and Pyhäsalmi mine (one of the oldest and deepest underground mines in Europe). Please keep visiting the website www.rs2016.org for the latest information. This symposium encompasses all aspects of rock stresses such as:
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Click here to download the call for papers leaflet. Submit your abstract by 3rd of August! |
This will be the 1st International Symposium on Reducing Risks in Site Investigation, Modelling and Construction for Rock Engineering. The Symposium is sponsored by the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM), the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The reason for holding the Symposium is to develop methods for improving safety in rock engineering construction—through the three aspects of site investigation, modelling and construction procedures. The emphasis will be on improving our knowledge of these three aspects so that the risks can be reduced. We welcome papers describing developments in all aspects of rock mechanics and rock engineering. For more information click here to visit the Conference website. |
Following the 1st International Conference on Rock Dynamics (RocDyn-1) in Lausanne Switzerland in June 2013, RocDyn-2 will be held in Suzhou China in May 2016, organised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, together with Monash University Australia, Toronto University Canada, Nanyang Technological University Singapore and EPFL Switzerland. Colleagues interested to participate RocDyn-2 are invited to submit abstracts on various aspects within the conference schemes. Preliminary information on RocDyn-2 can be found at website www.rocdyn.org. |
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