NZGS Geotechnical Symposium 2008

Keynote Speaker Professor John Atkinson BSc, ACGI, MSc, DIC, PhD, MA, FICE, CEng, FGS, CGeol. Professor of Soil Mechanics, City University, London. Professor John Atkinson has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Civil Engineering and in Soil Mechanics from Imperial College. He was a Research Assistant in the Cambridge University Engineering Department and Senior Lecturer at University College Cardiff before coming to City University as Reader in 1980. He was promoted to the Chair in Soil Mechanics in 1985. John Atkinson is author of several text-books on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering and is well known as a lecturer in UK and abroad. He founded the Geotechnical Engineering Research Centre at City University and helped to establish the London Geotechnical Centrifuge Centre. He is an expert on soil mechanics, measurement of soil behaviour and properties in laboratory tests and analyses of unexpected soil behaviour. He has served on the Editorial Boards of major international journals and on national committees. He has been Chairman of the Engineering Group of the Geological Society, he has served on the Council of the Geological Society and he is currently Editor of Geotechnique. In March 2000 Professor Atkinson gave the 40th Rankine Lecture on Non-linear Soil Stiffness in Routine Design. This is the major annual lecture of the British Geotechnical Society. Professor Atkinson has worked as a consultant and contractor in the UK and in Australia and for 10 years he was a Consultant to Ove Arup and Partners. He is currently Visiting Senior Principal with Coffey Geotechnics and provides technical leadership, consulting services and professional development training to Coffey Geotechnics staff in Australia and to EDGE Consultants in UK. He has advised on many projects including caisson sinking in Cairo, the Great man Made River project in Libya, sinking of an iron ore bulk carrier ship, slips in hydraulic fill, problems during shield tunnelling in Leicester and extraction of jack-up rig legs from soft soils in the North Sea.

Invited Speaker Associate Professor Misko Cubrinovski BSc, MSc, PhD University of Canterbury, Christchurch Associate Professor Misko Cubrinovski has a BSc degree in Civil Engineering and MSc degree in Earthquake Engineering respectively from UCM and IEEES, Skopje, Macedonia, and a PhD degree in Civil Engineering from University of Tokyo, Japan. He was an Assistant Professor at IEEES before embarking on a 15-year research career in Japan with several leading institutions including University of Tokyo, Taisei Corporation (general contractor) and Kiso-Jiban Consultants (geotechnical consulting). He joined the University of Canterbury in 2005. Misko Cubrinovski is an expert on geotechnical earthquake engineering with particular research interests in liquefaction, seismic response of earth structures and soil-structure interaction. His direct experience includes numerous reconnaissance missions of areas hit by earthquakes, case history studies, laboratory tests on soil samples and physical models, and development of theoretical methods for both simplified design-oriented assessment and advanced seismic analyses. He is author of over 75 peer-reviewed publications and about 50 technical reports on research and engineering projects. Associate Professor Misko Cubrinovski has served on Editorial Boards and various national committees, and is currently a member of TC4 Technical Committee of ISSMGE on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering. He has worked as geotechnical earthquake specialist and advisor on a number of major projects including Seismic Design of Sakhalin to Japan Gas Pipeline, effectiveness of countermeasures against liquefaction, seismic assessment of NPP sites and facilities, and seismic evaluation of pile foundations of high-rise buildings and bridge piers in the Metropolitan area of Tokyo.