The Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) in collaboration with the Canadian National Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH-CNC) hosted the 74th Canadian Geotechnical Conference and the 14th Joint CGS/IAH-CNC Groundwater Conference in-person from Sunday, September 26 to Wednesday, September 29, 2021.
Queen's Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering students and faculty attended the meeting, and had a wonderful experience. The department's involvement included the following.
Dr. Mark Diederichs delivered a truly fantastic and well received R.M. Hardy Keynote Lecture. The lecture was titled, "Underground Construction in Complex Rock Environments: Promises and Pitfalls of Observational Design". This award was established by the Canadian Geotechnical Society in 1987, to honour the memory of the late Robert (Bob) M. Hardy in the form of a Keynote Address to kick of the annual conference, and is the highest “Lecture Award” presented by the Society.
Dr. Jenn Day chaired the Rock Mechanics Division meeting and had enthusiastic discussion from all who attended.
Dr. Jean Hutchinson presented the CGS Legget Award, the highest lifetime achievement award, to Doug Van Dine.”
Current master's students Caitlin Fischer and Mark McDonald accepted their 2020 undergrad student group award in person, on behalf of their winning team consisting of Caitlin, Mark and Emily Miszk. The award was presented by CGS past president, Mario Ruel.
Students Emelie Gagnon, Allison Brannigan, Rachel Burns, and Renee McAnerney won the 2021 undergraduate student group award.
Presentations by the following students were delivered:
- Amanda Hyslop - "Structural and geomechanical analysis of the 2016 Elephant Rock failure, Hopewell Rocks Provinicial Park, NB."
- Caitlin Fischer - "The use of explicit numerical models for the prediction of residual rockmass behaviour around a circular tunnel"
- Simone Markus - "A review of excavation induced coupled consolidation analysis in jointed rock"
- Nick MacDonald - "A critical review of laboratory multi-stage direct shear testing for rock fractures"
- Evan Dressler - "Guildelines for estimating residual GSI and the effects of Hoek-Brown dilation on continuum 3D pillar behaviour"
- Mark McDonald - "Interpreting elastic properties of rock core from ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements"
- Tim Packulak - "Comparison of corrected joint normal and shear stiffness between crystalline and carbonate rock joints"
Overall a very successful GeoNiagara 2021! Congratulations to all.