International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The importance of geotechnical engineering may be explained by stating “Virtually every structure is supported on soils or rock.” Soils are primarily natural deposits and variation in their characteristics, even within distances of less than a few yards, makes geotechnical engineering challenging. Unlike many other engineering fields, professional judgment plays a key role in the design of geotechnical engineering projects. Dr. Shamsher Prakash envisioned that civil engineers can develop sound professional judgment only by learning from project performance. He believed that sharing knowledge gained from every geotechnical engineering project is the best way to train engineers. With this in mind, he organized in 1984 the first international conference of its kind on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. I have heard many stories of the challenges and hurdles he faced to make this conference successful. He never lost his focus and the conference was a grand success.

Engineers who attended the first case histories conference, and those who could not attend, realized the unique value of the information exchange and demanded more conferences like the first one. The demand continued to grow and Dr. Prakash organized six highly recognized conferences on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. The seventh conference is scheduled for May 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. These conferences have contributed a tremendous wealth of knowledge for the profession to use and to train future engineers. This work lead to the establishment of the International Journal of Geo-engineering Case Histories in 2004 with Dr. Prakash as the Honorary Editor.

Dr. Prakash’s name is now synonymous with case histories in geotechnical engineering. The seventh case histories conference is likely to be the last conference he is going to Chair. However, these conferences, and the wealth of information now available because of Dr. Prakash’s vision, are his legacy which will live forever. On behalf of every civil engineer in the world, I would like to acknowledge Missouri University of Science and Technology for providing many volumes of the conference proceedings for use at no cost. The only way to remember Dr. Prakash and make his legacy eternal is to use the information in the proceedings to design and construct projects which advance civilization while keeping the environment and public health, safety, and comfort as the main focus.

I knew Dr. Prakash for several years before I joined Missouri University of Science and Technology. It was a great pleasure to come to know him better, both personally and professionally after joining Missouri S&T. On the occasion the releasing the proceedings of the Case Histories conference (Proceedings 1-4) for free downloading, I commend the efforts of Dr. Prakash in giving an unprecedented storehouse of information for the profession to share worldwide.