Rankine lecture success for Southampton
About 1000 engineers and geologists attended the 50th Rankine Lecture on 17th March, which this year was delivered at Imperial College in London by Professor Chris Clayton, Head of our School of Civil Engineering and the Environment. Chris is the first Southampton academic to have been selected since the Lecture's inception in 1961.
The Rankine Lecture is hosted in March each year by the British Geotechnical Association. It is widely viewed as the most prestigious of the invited lectures in Geotechnical Engineering, worldwide. The lecture commemorates W. J. M. Rankine, Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University, who is perhaps best remembered for his work on thermodynamics, and particularly the Rankine cycle which described the changes in pressure and temperature of water in a steam engine. He was also one of the first engineers in the UK to make a significant contribution to Soil Mechanics, the subject of the Rankine Lecture, and is best known for his theory for the pressure on earth retaining structures.
In even-numbered years the Rankine Lecturer is from the UK, and in odd-numbered years from overseas. Rankine lecturers are chosen on the basis of their international standing and reputation, their technical expertise and contribution to geotechnical engineering, their ability to deliver an outstanding lecture, and to produce a published paper that will serve as a landmark to academia and industry.
Chris's lecture, on "Stiffness at Small Strain - Research and Practice" addressed the challenge of determining input parameters for the numerical prediction of ground movements caused by new construction such as deep basements and tunnels, which if uncontrolled can cause damage to adjacent buildings or underlying infrastructure. Each Rankine lecture is published in Géotechnique, the world's leading geotechnical journal for which, by coincidence, Chris is currently the Editor. Chris comments that "The selection of a Southampton academic to deliver the Rankine Lecture is not only a personal honour, but is recognition of the world-class geotechnical research team that we have developed over the past decade."