US-Russia International Symposium on Geotechnical Engineering

On May 17-18th at the US-Russia International Symposium on Geotechnical Engineering in St. Petersburg, Professor Laefer spoke on Vertical Data Integration for Tunnelling and met with leaders in geotechnology from both the US and Russia. She was also delighted to take part in excursions to visit underground construction projects as well as a flood protection project in Kronstadt, and to tour the city more broadly. 

At the symposium, the heads of the two delegations Professor V.A.Ilyichev and Professor Jean-Louis Briaud agreed to further cooperation between the national societies working in geotechnology in the US and Russia over the coming three years.

To read more: http://www.spbgasu.ru/en/news/3919/

Long Distance Network Facilitation Seed Grant Awarded to Prof. Laefer

The Connecting Women Faculty in Geotechnical Engineering project, a partnership between Syracuse University, Drexel University, and the University of Michigan, has awarded Prof. Debra Laefer a seed grant for long distance network facilitation amongst women in geotechnical engineering. The grant will enable Prof. Laefer to plan and build an on-line database for the engineering community and the general public to identify women with expertise in geotechnical engineering. Similar to “Women Also Know Stuff”, in the political science community, this new tool will help everyone from conference planners to contractors to identify highly skilled women to fulfill their needs for geotechnical expertise.

Prof. Laefer is delighted to collaborate with the Deep Foundations Institute’s Mary Ellen Bruce Large on this exciting project, combining their many years of involvement in the geotechnical community to support and elevate the many talented women working in geotechnical engineering today.