Providing Leadership in Advancing Geosynthetics Education and Research
Last year, IGS North America’s membership and leadership re-committed themselves to being a more active organization. This movement led to strong membership growth in 2017, a photo competition, and a high-level Educate the Educators (EtE) event in December in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Along the way, the chapter hosted successful webinars on hot topics such as electrical leak location technologies and how to properly interpret minimum average roll values for geosynthetic materials. As 2018 opens, IGS-NA’s activity continues. We summarize here some of the chapter’s highlights and forthcoming opportunities, and we welcome your participation.
Kind regards,
Bruno Herlin, V.P. Communications, IGS-NA
IGS North America is supported and driven by its active, field-influencing membership. We encourage all members and interested members to renew/join now to give the chapter the funds it needs to execute our technology transfer, field-building initiatives.
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IGS North America’s Educate the Educators (EtE) event in Kingston, Ontario, Canada was a strong success. Held in early December, EtE provided training and educational materials to 35 engineering professors from across the United States and Canada. The training will enable them to offer state-of-the-practice geosynthetics education to their students, who will then enter the field with some working knowledge of how to utilize these materials in infrastructure. The Kingston gathering was IGS North America’s second EtE event, after a similarly impactful session in Houston in 2015. A larger story about the December 2017 EtE will be published on IGS North America’s website soon. Special thanks to our Diamond Event Sponsors: Cetco, GSE Environmental, Propex, Solmax and TenCate; and our Sapphire Event Sponsors: Argru, Huesker and Thrace-Linq. IGS-NA would also like to recognize the 2015 EtE Sponsors. Remaining funds from the 2015 event were used to support the 2017 event as well. Thank you to GMA, Geosynthetic Institute, TenCate, ECTC, Presto Geosystems, GSE Environmental, Huesker, Thrace-Linq, and TRI Environmental.
The webinar series continues to strengthen the chapter’s reputation, membership, and revenue. January’s webinar from renowned engineer and IGS-NA member Richard Thiel, P.E. (“Pond Liner System Design and Operation”) was so popular that the chapter needed to add capacity to the webinar room. Thank you, Rick Thiel, for sharing your insight with the engineering community! More expert-led webinars will be announced soon.
NOTE: Members receive a coupon for one free webinar upon paying annual dues!
IGS North America has long been a partner to the biennial Geosynthetics conferences. IGS-NA members provide a significant amount of the technical expertise in papers, as moderators, as panel discussion participants, and more. The employers of IGS-NA members are active in the exhibit hall and affiliated event activities. In 2019, this long-standing partnership will continue. IGS North America will again serve as a recognized supporter of the next Geosynthetics conference, which is organized by the Industrial Fabrics Association International. Geosynthetics 2019 will be held 10 – 13 February 2019 at the Marriott Marquis in Houston, Texas.
IGS-NA encourages its members and affiliates to submit technical papers and participate actively in the trade show. ABSTRACTS DEADLINE: April 6.
One of the most decorated researchers in the field of geosynthetics and a founding board member of IGS-NA, Dr. R. Kerry Rowe (Queen’s University) has received another prestigious honor: Officer of the Order of Canada. This is one of Canada’s highest civilian honors. It represents leaders in various professional fields and the beneficial impact they have not only on those professions but on Canadian society, domestically and internationally. Dr. Rowe was recognized for his seminal contributions to the field of geoenvironmental engineering, notably for his pioneering research in waste barrier systems.
We welcome news from all IGS North America members. Contact Bruno Herlin, IGS-NA VP of Communications, [email protected].
- SME 2018
Minneapolis, MN, USA, February 25 – 28, 2018 - IFCEE 2018
Orlando, FL, March 5 – 10, 2018 - GeoHazards 7
Canmore, AB, Canada, June 3 – 6, 2018
- ICG 2018
Seoul, Korea, September 16 – 21, 2018 - GeoEdmonton 2018
Edmonton, Canada, September 23 – 26, 2018 - AMEA 124th Annual Meeting
Spokane, WA, USA, December 3 – 7, 2018
www.IGS-NA.org | +1.561.768.9487 | [email protected]
IGS-NA Board of Directors
R. Brachman, President | J. McCartney, President Elect, Secretary | R. Gupta, Treasurer
J. Allen, V.P. Technology | S. Boyle, V.P. Membership | B. Herlin, V.P. Communications
T. Stark, V.P. University Outreach | J. Henderson, Past President | J. Curry, Liaison Member
The Mission of IGS North America is to provide leadership in advancing geosynthetics
education and research to attain their appropriate and widespread use as
engineering materials as the Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS)
for the United States of America and Canada.
Copyright © 2018 IGS North America. All rights reserved.