Professor Gabriel Auvinet - Geotechnical Division

Sociedad Mexicana de Ingeniería Geotécnica, A.C.
SMIG, Mesa Directiva 20112012
Mexico City, November 29th, 2012
Dr Michelle Theron
Chairman of GeoDevision
Dear Colleagues,
The Mexican Society for Geotechnical Engineering (SMIG) was founded in 1957. Since then, it has maintained a rigorous
tradition of excellence. Soil Mechanics pioneers Nabor Carrillo, Leonardo Zeevaert and Raúl Marsal, to name only a few,
are known worldwide for the talent they demonstrated in solving the difficult geotechnical problems caused by the very soft
clayey soils of Mexico City, but also for their outstanding research work on earth dams behavior, mechanics of granular
media, soil dynamics and many other topics.
Since its foundation, SMIG has contributed significantly to the activities of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering. Mexico City was the venue for the 1969 Seventh International Conference.The First Pan-
American Conference was organized in Mexico City (1959) and the Ninthin Guadalajara (1995). Several of SMIG’s most
distinguished members: Raúl J. Marsal, Alfonso Rico, Guillermo Springall and Gabriel Auvinet have been ISSMGE Vice-
Presidentsfor North America. Mexican geotechnical engineers have also participated in several ISSMGE Technical
Committees, including TC36 (now TC214) “Foundation in difficult soft soil conditions”, hosted by Mexico since 2000.
SMIG is a dynamic, creative and productive Member Society, as was confirmed in the last National Meeting held in Cancun
on November 2012, with the participation of distinguished international lecturers.
In the Council Meeting that will take place during the next ICSMGE in Paris 2013, new officers of the Board will be
elected. On this matter,SMIG would like to propose one of its most distinguished members: Dr. Gabriel Auvinet, as a
candidate to ISSMGE Presidency for the period 2013-2017.
Dr. Auvinet is currently ISSMGE Vice-President for North America. In 1991-1992 he wasPresident of the SMIG and in
2000-2009he chaired ISSMGE Technical Committee TC36. Since 1970 he is a Research Professor at the Institute of
Engineering, National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he has guided a large number of master and doctorate
students. His research work and numerous publications on granular media, foundations and probabilistic approach in
Geotechnics, together with his participation as a consultant in many geotechnical projects in Mexico and abroad have made
of him one of the most respected members of the international geotechnical community. In 2002, he delivered the Nabor
Carrillo Lecture, the most prestigious geotechnical lecture in Mexico. Thanks to his strong bonds with many countries
throughout the world and especially within the Americasand Europe, he has established a wide international network of
colleagues and friends.
We are convinced that Gabriel Auvinet’s ethics and clear vision of the geotechnical professionwill constitute a strong asset
for ISSMGE in the accomplishment of its main objective: promotion of international cooperation amongst engineers and
scientists for the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.
We thank you in advance for the support that you may provide to Gabriel Auvinet’s candidacy to ISSMGE Presidency for
the period 2013-2017. If you endorse this candidacy, we kindly ask for a letter from your Society supporting it, as well as
your vote in the Council Meeting to be held in Paris, 2013.
Bestregards,
Juan de Dios Alemán
President
Mexican Society for Geotechnical Engineering (SMIG)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Valle de Bravo 19 Col. Vergel de Coyoacán, 14340 México D.F., MÉXICO 56-77-37-30 FAX 56-79-36-76
Web Page: http://www.smig.org.mx E- Mail: smig2009@prodigy.net.mx

President of ISSMGE Candidate
Professor Gabriel AUVINET
Geocomputing Laboratory, Institute of Engineering
Torre de Ingeniería, 2nd floor, Circuito Escolar,
Ciudad Universitaria, México, D.F.
e-mail: gauvinetg@iingen.unam.mx
Office phone: +52(55)56233500, ext 1254, Cell: +525554122915

Professor Auvinet’s background
Gabriel Auvinet was born in Cholet, France, on June 7th, 1942. He received his Bachelor’s degree
from Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics in Paris in 1964. Then, attracted by the uncommon characteristics
of Mexico City subsoil, he went to Mexico as a postgraduate student and earned his Master’s degree in Soil
Mechanics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1969. He received his
Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the same University in 1986. He married his wife Monique in 1970;
they have three children: Valérie, born in 1970, Cécile, born in 1973 and Caroline, born in 1975. Gabriel
speaks English, Spanish and French fluently. He has some basic knowledge in German.
In 1970, Gabriel Auvinet became an Assistant Professor at Institute of Engineering, UNAM. There,
he progressed through the ranks of Associate Professor and Tenure Professor. He occupied successively the
positions of head of the Geotechnical department, Institute of Engineering (Instituto de Ingeniería, UNAM,
I. de I.), Subdirector of I. de I. and Head of the Civil Engineering Department of the Postgraduate Division
of the Engineering Faculty. He currently leads the Geocomputing Laboratory of I. de I., a group of about 40
researchers and postgraduate students.
Professor Auvinet has a broad range of geotechnical interests. He has dedicated his research work to
soil mechanics with emphasis on mechanics of granular media and special foundations in consolidating soft
soils. In this field, his work focused on the behavior of friction and point-bearing piles and rigid inclusions.
He was also intensely involved in analysis, design and construction of dams and artificial lakes.
Simultaneously, he developed new techniques for application of probabilistic and geostatistical methods in
Civil Engineering. He was one of the first promoters of application of the Stochastic Finite Element Method
in Geomechanics and used this technique for assessing the reliability of different types of geotechnical
structures. During the last ten years he has developed models of the subsoil of Mexico City and other sites
in Mexico and abroad using modern tools such as Geographical Information Systems and advanced
interpolation techniques based on geostatistical concepts. He has managed more than 190 research projects
on foundations, tunnels, dams, artificial lakes, foundations of buildings and bridges, subway systems, levee
erosion, sea bottom geotechnics, and many other topics; most of these projects were sponsored by public or
private institutions such as CONAGUA (Water authority in Mexico), Pemex (Mexican oil company) and
GDF (Technical services of Mexico City). In 1999-2001, he participated as a consultant in the award
winning Rion-Antirion bridge project in Greece. Presently, he is the main geotechnical Consultant of
CONAGUA for the “Túnel Emisor Oriente” project, a 62km long and 7m in diameter tunnel, probably the
largest tunnel in the world being built in soils.
A Professor of the Postgraduate Division of the Engineering Faculty, UNAM, since 1970, he has
also offered short courses on topics emanating from his research work in Mexico and Central and South
America and other countries like France or Albania. He has been named Honorary Professor by several
South American Universities. During successive sabbatical leaves, he was invited as a visiting Professor in
Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble (1986), Polytechnic University of Lorraine, Nancy (1991) and Blaise
Pascal University, Clermont (2004), France. Gabriel Auvinet is a member of the Science Academy and of
the Engineering Academy of Mexico.
Professor Auvinet has published a number of books and book chapters. He is also the author of
close to 250 Journals articles and conference papers, and 150 research reports. He has advised 49 Master
and 12 Doctorate students.
He has been secretary, vice-president and finally president of SMIG, the Mexican National Society
of Geotechnical Engineering (1991-1992). He was later chosen by President Ishihara in 2000, President
Van Impe in 2001, and President Seco e Pinto in 2005 to chair ISSMGE’s Technical Committee TC36 (now
TC214) on Foundations in Difficult Soft Soil Conditions. In this position, he organized several international
symposia. He was a Touring lecturer for ISSMGE in countries such as Chili and Paraguay and has been
invited as a key-note lecturer in many countries including Switzerland, South Korea, Canada, Argentina,
Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Perú and France
For his innovative contributions, Professor Auvinet has received the Larivière award by CNAM,
Paris, and, on several occasions, the Javier Barros Sierra award from the Civil Engineers College of
Mexico. He also received the José Luis Cuevas medal from SMIG in 2002. As an acknowledgment to his

outstanding contribution to solving some of the difficult geotechnical problems of Mexico City he was
conferred the Mexico City Civil Engineering award (Premio Lieberman) in 2010 by Mexico City mayor.
His experience in previous leadership positions and his demonstrated commitment to ISSMGE
through nine years of chairing a Technical Committee plus four years as ISSMGE Vice-President for North
America, together with his strong bonds to South America and Europe, have prepared him well to be the
next President of ISSMGE.
Gabriel is also a fan of history, especially history of Civil Engineering, and he is the author of
various books and book chapters on this subject.
A more detailed resume of Professor Gabriel Auvinet is available on the web.

Professor Auvinet’s vision on ISSMGE
Continuity and New Momentum
Continuity
The ISSMGE is the pre-eminent professional body representing the interests and activities
of Engineers, Academics and Contractors all over the world that actively participate in soil mechanics and
geotechnical engineering.
ISSMGE celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2011. The Society is in good shape in terms of image,
reputation, stature, and finances thanks to all previous Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Boards, Secretary
Generals, Technical Committees and Members contributions. It is a very sound institution who contributes
significantly to satisfy some of the basic needs for infrastructure development of the Society at large. To be
able to stay on this path of excellence, our Society must remain faithful to the principles of scientific rigor,
realism and engineering relevance of our work that were defined by the founders of Soil Mechanics and
reinforced by many eminent Geotechnical engineers in the past. An Honorary Consultative Group
constituted by former Presidents and Vice-Presidents of ISSMGE will be created to receive advice on this
fundamental aspect and general policies of ISSMGE.
During the 2009-2013 period, a great effort was accomplished by ISSMGE board and by its president
to implement a new working structure that comprises a number of new groups (Student and Young
members and Corporate Associates Presidential Groups) and committees (Technical Oversight;
Membership, Practitioners and Academicians; Public Relations, Innovations and Development; ISSMGE
Foundation and Awards Committees).
This ensures a better organization of the Society also involving a much larger number of members in
ISSMGE management activities. The challenge for the new president during the 2013-2017 period will be
to keep this new structure working harmoniously and efficiently.
As any large system, ISSMGE’s structure requires an important input of energy. I am thus ready as a
president to spend most of my time dedicated to the Society during the coming four years. This will imply
transferring a large part of my professional and academic duties to my collaborators but I am ready to do
that.
New Momentum
To keep improving and adjusting the structure of ISSMGE and its modus operandi to the evolution of
our profession and to new communication techniques, special attention will be given to a number of critical
points. During the coming four years, emphasis will be however on fostering scientific and technical
advances and ensuring their diffusion within ISSMGE and towards the rest of the Society at large.
Technical Committees. ISSMGE Technical Committees (TCs) are the strongest vehicle by which the
individual and country members are engaged in the progress of ISSMGE. Their mission should be clarified.
In a world where information reaches our members through too many and frequently unreliable sources,
their main objective should be to establish a clear and compact state of the art on the theme they are
dedicated to. The means to attain this objective should include reviewing contributions published in the
literature, as well as organizing lectures, workshops and conferences. These activities should not be
hindered by communication problems. On this point, a reevaluation of the TCs rules and way the Technical
Oversight Committee operates is in order. A new organization and time table will be proposed to guarantee
that TCs are able to keep working even during the period where the ICSMGE is held and the board is
renewed. Evaluation and renewal of TC’s leaders should be a continuous process based on the committees’
performance at any point of time. Information should flow continuously from TCs chairs to TOC but also to
the Vice-Presidents and the board. Any well thought out ideas for the creation of new TCs will be well
received provided the idea is sound and there is a demonstration that the new TC will be active. The
recently implemented plan to reward those TCs which are most active will be upheld.

Conferences. The International and Regional Conferences should remain the main events of our Society;
they provide the best occasions to assess the evolution of our knowledge and new techniques and, for our
members, to have fruitful professional and friendly contacts. Special technical meetings are also useful and
most of them are successful. We have however a large number of conferences: almost two per month. From
now on, emphasis should be on relevance and quality rather than numbers. Conferences throughout the
world should also be better distributed between the different regions to contribute to the transfer of
knowledge towards new regions and countries.
Diffusion of information within ISSMGE and towards the rest of the world. The web page of our Society
should be a true hub allowing a steady flow of information between members and towards any potential
user of geotechnical information and geotechnical professional services. It should include links towards the
principal Journals related to geotechnics, and to web pages of Academic centers dedicated to Geomechanics
and Professional Associations. Keywords such as “foundations”, “slopes”, “geotechnical risks”, etc. should
lead directly to the ISSMGE’s web page. Easy access should be provided to State of the Art reports
published during the ISSMGE Conferences. The ISSMGE bulletin founded in 2005 offers a direct and
efficient connection between the 19000 members of the Society and a wider participation should be
encouraged. The recently implemented “Geoworld” professional network should also receive our support to
reach maturity and be able to offer more services to participants. New initiatives of our Innovation and
Development Committee will contribute to better serve our members and increase the impact of ISSMGE in
the world.
International Seminars. A new impulse should be given to International Seminars, a program that has
proven to be very successful over the years, thanks to our past president, Pedro Seco e Pinto. This program
is also useful to induce the formation or to reinforce member societies in countries deprived of a wellestablished
geotechnical group. An important step forward towards better diffusion of knowledge was given
recently with the introduction of Webinars. Webinars are internet transmitted short courses; they do not
suffer from the physical presence handicap associated with short courses. This service is being offered
world-wide including developing countries. Up to this moment, webinars have been offered for free. This
policy will be carefully reviewed, the objective being of course to make them self-financing, but whatever
circumstances this program will be developed.
Presence of ISSMGE in the public eye. ISSMGE should be ubiquitous in the media to present outstanding
civil engineering achievements, to discuss geotechnical risks or to comment on natural disasters. Politics
concerning relations with the civil authorities should be defined. It is wrong to abandon public forums to
specialists with less suitable backgrounds. Ready-to-be-presented programs or videos should be prepared by
our Public Relations Committee.
Journals. ISSMGE Journal of Geo-Engineering Case Histories must be given our full support. The journal
has already reached a mostly satisfactory state. We must however multiply the participation of the many
members of ISSMGE who are practitioners and have case histories to share with their colleagues and also
with professors who can use case histories to help the students develop engineering judgment. The journal
should also reflect the activities of the Technical Committees.
Membership. Increasing the ISSMGE membership and the number of member societies will be a strong
priority. Every geo-professional should be an ISSMGE member. We will certainly reach 20,000 members
during the 2013-2017 period. Initiatives by our Membership, practitioners and Academicians Committee
will be helpful to increase further the membership. Some incentives should be proposed; one of them could
consist of offering a free one year registration to those participants who, not being members of their
National Society, have demonstrated their true interest by contributing a paper to a local or international
conference. A proactive attitude is required to obtain significant results. Prof. Leonardo Zeevaert used to
say “You must sell soil mechanics the same way you sell soft drinks”.
Students and young members. Students and young members are the future of our society. The Students and
Young Members Group will receive a special attention from the president and the board and their

ecommendations to the ISSMGE Board about activities, including internet ideas and proposed technical
contests during Conferences will be very much taken into account. Young Members Conferences should be
progressively celebrated in all regions and member countries and the proceedings of such meetings should
be made readily available.
Corporate Associate members. A new synergy should be induced between Academia and Industry. The
number of our Corporate Associate Members reflects the relevance of our activities in practical engineering
and the prestige of our society. The Corporate Associate Group should grow in number and get better
organized to attain the weight they deserve in our Society. A catalog of Corporate Associates Members will
be published and widely distributed throughout the world.
ISSMGE Foundation. Contributions from individuals and corporate donors will be encouraged. They open
new perspectives for ISSMGE in its actions to assist young members and developing member societies in
their quest for a full participation in ISSMGE activities.
Awards. Awards are important to acknowledge the merits of our more distinguished members, group of
members and societies. ISSMGE has now a fair number of such awards thanks to our Awards Committee.
Avoiding inflation in this number of awards will contribute to maintain their prestige. The same is true for
honorary lectures.
International Affiliations. Close relationships will be maintained with sister societies such as the
International Society of Rock mechanics (ISRM) and the International Association for Engineering
Geology and the Environment (IAEG) via the Federation of the Geo-Engineering Societies (FedIGS) but
also with the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), the International Geosynthetics Society
(IGS) and the International Tunnelling Association (ITA). Close cooperation can be achieved through
flexible structures maintaining our intellectual and financial independence. The success of the Joint
Technical Committee on Natural Slopes and Landslides illustrates the importance of technical cooperation
between sister societies and suggests the convenience of creating a larger number of joint committees on
topics of common interest.
Official Languages. English is the language most used in the world and it represents the best choice when a
foreigner must communicate in most countries of the world. French plays an important role in the world and
the ISSMGE should be proud to have had the foresight to adopt two official languages. Speaking myself
three languages: English, Spanish and French, I know that other languages also play an important role in the
world. So, while I consider important to maintain English and French as the official languages of the
ISSMGE, I also think that it is important to find easy and inexpensive ways to facilitate the understanding
of our contributions in other languages. The lexicon that can be found in our web page, which provides
translation of the geotechnical technical words into many languages, should be updated and extended to
more languages.
Obviously our members have many more interesting ideas and thoughts on ISSMGE. Let me say that I am
ready to listen to both countries and individual members, to learn what they perceive as the ISSMGE
problems, and what ideas they have to improve ISSMGE. This process may start right away, so here is how
to reach me. Email: gauvinetg@iingen.unam.mx office phone: +52(55)56233500 ext 1254, cell phone:
+52(55)54122915. When necessary, I will visit you in your home country or I will ask one of our Vice-
Presidents to visit you in order to exchange points of view with your society. This is part of our duty as
officers of ISSMGE. In 2012, as Vice-President of ISSMGE for North America, I visited 12 different
countries. With the help of the board and of all ISSMGE members, I intend to keep working with the same
intensity in my position as President of our International Society.
Gabriel Auvinet
President of ISSMGE Candidate