2019 Ardaman-Wissa Lecture - University of Florida

The University of Florida’s Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment (ESSIE) held the 2019 Ardaman-Wissa Lecture on October 22, 2019.

This year’s guest lecturer was Dr. Eduardo E. Alonso, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, UPC, in Barcelona, Spain.  Dr. Alonso’s lecture subject was, Dynamics of Landslides, and dealt with the rapid motion of landslides under certain circumstances.  These high velocity material movements are not consistent with accepted constitutive models for shearing strength.  The likely mechanism involves the heat-induced pore water pressurization of shear bands.

Dr. Alonso has been Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the Civil Engineering School of UPC since 1986.  His distinguished career includes presenting the Coulomb, Buchanan, Sower Rankine, and Leonards Lectures among others.

The 2019 Ardaman-Wissa Lecture was organized by Dr. Xiaoyu Song, Assistant Professor of ESSIE’s Geosystems Engineering at the University of Florida.  The Lecture was attended by University of Florida undergraduate and graduate students, geotechnical engineering faculty, and interested engineers from the local area.  The Lecture was followed by a dinner for the guest lecturer and attendees.

The 2019 Ardaman-Wissa Lecture was once again sponsored by Ardaman and Associates, Inc., as has been the case since the Lecture was first held in 1981.  In the ensuing years, the Lecture has been held on essentially an annual basis, and has been presented by nationally and internationally reknowned geotechnical engineering researchers and practitioners.