UNSAT 2014

The best and brightest geotechnical engineering scholars and engineers visited Sydney during July 2014 to take part in the Sixth International Conference on Unsaturated Soils. The event was chaired and organised by CIES academics Professor Nasser Khalili, Dr Arman Khoshghalb and Associate Professor Adrian Russell.

(R, honorary chair) relax at the conference banquet.

The conference was a great success, showcasing the latest research on unsaturated soils from around the world on topics including unsaturated soil behavior, experimentation, modeling, case histories, multidisciplinary problems and emerging research areas.

The 266 conference delegates came from 32 countries and authored 247 papers presented at the conference. The papers are contained in a 2-volume peer reviewed proceedings titled Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications, published by CRC Press.

A highlight of the conference was the delivery of the first Blight Lecture by Professor Antonio Gens of UPC, Spain. This lecture, which acknowledges Professor Gens’ sustained and outstanding contributions to unsaturated soil mechanics, is named after the late Professor Geoffrey E. Blight, a great engineer, pioneer and scholar, who passed away in 2013.

The conference was held under the auspices of Technical Committee 106 on Unsaturated Soils, part of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.

For more information on unsaturated soil mechanics research and application please contact Professor Nasser Khalili or A/Professor Adrian Russell.