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APPENDIX 15

REPORT OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT FOR EUROPEy 1973-1977 ON THE EVENTS IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

It is an honouring duty of the Vice President to survey the whole scene of work in soil mechanics and foundation engineering in the respective Region and to prepare a report on it to the Executive Committee, on the occasion of International Confer-ences. He does this in order to promote coordina-tion and international cooperation, exchange of information among the member Societies, for the advancement of knowledge and engineering practice.

I think I should start my report on the grave losses the International Society suffered during the past four years. Early in 1976, Albert Caguot, member of the Institut the "great old man" of Soil Mechanics in France, passed away. He was one of the first persons who realized the importance of Soil Mechanics also in the field of practical applications.

He laid down, as early as in 1934, the foundations of the Theory of Plasticity as applied to soils.

The book "Eąuilibre des massives 3 frottement inteme" continued the long series of the splendid achievements of French ingenuity and clarity. His other book "Traitś de la mścaniąue des sols", written together with his son-in-law, Professor Kerisel, provided the French speaking world with the basie tools for practical work and a fine textbook for students. We will keep the name and work of Albert Caąuot in grateful memory.

The Austrian Society lost one of its founding members, its long time President, dr. Wilhelm Aichhorn. He worked mainly in the field of Soil Mechanics of road construction and had valuable results in research of soil stabilization. He introduced soil mechanics investigation into road design in Austria and was an enthusiastic fighter for new ideas. He initiated the series of the Danube European Conferences.

The British Geotechnical Society announced the death of dr. Leonard F. Cooling. He worked as head of the British Building Research Station and in this capacity he had attended all the International Conferences until Moscow. He was the real pioneer of Soil Mechanics in Britain, he was among the founders of the International Society and created an outstanding school of soil mechanics. His example will be remembered in the Society, in Britain and in the world as well.

The Yugoslav Society announced with deep sadness the loss of one of its outstanding members, of Professor Krsmanovic. A member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bośnia and Hercegovina, he was the founder of the Geotechnical Institute at the University of Sarajewo. The French Society announced in 1975 the passing of its President Jacgues Florentin; his untimely death was a tragic loss for the whole Society, sińce he was a dedicated man and devoted servant to it. Perhaps, I may add a personal notę of sympathy while I'm announcing these tremendous losses, sińce I have the privilege to have known all these personalities personally and I am fully aware that Soil Mechanics has been madę the poorer by their passing, in a measure, we can hardly appreciate.

May I ask you, fellow members of the Soil Mechanics family, to stand up for a minutę and remember life and achievements of these splendid personalities. We remember also the other members of the family who passed away in the past four years but cannot be listed here.

In order to be able to prepare my report, a circular letter was sent to the European National Societies which asked them to send in their respective reports. However, until the end of May, only fifteen countries responded in merito to this letter, therefore my present report will be rather incomplete and won't cover the whole activity of the Region.

The fifteen countries are the following:

Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Yugoslavia. These national reports will be covered as fuli as possible; from all the other countries, only some important events which came to my knowledge, will be mentioned.

I start my report with the most important event in the Region and still I remain in strict alphabetical order. This event was the 6th European Regional Conference of the International Society. This was held in Vienna, Austria, in March 1976. It also commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the publica-tion of Terzaghi's book:    Erdbaumechanik auf

bodenphysikalischer Grundlage in Vienna, in the year 1926. Mrs. Ruth Terzaghi and several pioneers of Soil Mechanics working in close collaboration with Terzaghi / Arthur and Leo Casagrande, H. Borowicka,

J. Hvorslev, K. Kienzl, 0. Kretschmer, K. Langer,

P. Siedek and Ch.Veder / in the early twenties, attended the meeting which madę the Conference a very special event, and recalled the pioneering spirit of those days.

The main themes of the Conference were devoted to deep foundations and deep excavations. The Proceedings filled three volumes, presenting over 100 papers, 70 orał and written contributions and seven generał reports. The meeting aroused a great interest, over a thousand persons representing 32 nations attended it. The Conference was a real example of perfect organization and a plain success from scientific and practical point of view and was higbiighted by accompanying social events.

In Czechoslovakia, the development is characterized by an expansion and broadening of activity in the field of Soil Mechanics, in theory as well as in practice. Every year morę than 25 papers are published many of them presenting important contributions from representatives of the younger generation. Several valuable monographs have also

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