California State University, USA

Professor Braja Das is the Dean Emeritus of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, California State University, USA. He is a geotechnical engineering by profession and received his Ph.D. degree in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. For more than three decades, Professor Das has worked as a faculty member and in academic administration in several universities. He is a Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Life Member of the American Society for Engineering Education; and Emeritus Member of TRB’s AFS-80 Committee on Stabilization of Geomaterials and Stabilized Materials.

As a teacher, he has received many teaching awards including the Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence, University of Texas at El Paso (1983); AMOCO Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching, University of Texas at El Paso (1983); Western Electric Fund Award, ASEE (1984); Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, Society of Automotive Engineers Inc. (1985).

Professor Das has published more than 300 papers in various journals and peer-reviewed conference proceedings. They are mostly in the areas of shallow foundations, earth anchors, and geosynthetics. He published some of the early founding studies on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations on geogrid-reinforced sand. His past editorial activities in geotechnical engineering journals include Editorial Board member of Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE (1988-1992); Lowland Technology International, Japan (1999-2007); Geotextiles and Geomembranes, Elsevier, UK (2008 – present). He was the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering (1995-1998); and Co-Editor of Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Springer (2001-2006). He is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering (Taylor and Francis, UK) since 2007 up to the present. 

Dr. Das has been a very popular keynote / or invited speaker in many conferences and special meetings in various countries. These countries include Mexico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, India, University of Birmingham, UK, Korea, Bolivia, Venezuela, Turkey, Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, and Tunisia. He has been named as the first Eulalio Juárez Badillo Lecturer by the Mexican Society of Geotechnical Engineers (November 2016).

Professor Das is the author/co-author of several text and reference books in the area of geotechnical engineering, probably having written more than any other individual in geotechnical engineering. His textbooks have been translated into several languages and are used throughout the world. His clear, concise, and singularly-unique style of presentation is very much admired; thereby attracting many students over the last 25 years who might not have considered geotechnical engineering as a profession.
This is truly his most outstanding achievement which has endeared him to many young geotechnical engineers around the world. This is his legacy -- now and for years to come.

Sai Vanapalli, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Dr. Vanapalli received his PhD from the University of Saskatchewan in 1994. Since then, he has been actively involved with research activities related to mechanics of unsaturated soils, primarily dealing with engineering properties such as shear strength, coefficient of permeability, volume change behavior and proposing innovative techniques for the design of foundations and estimating the foundation settlements in unsaturated soils.

Dr. Vanapalli has authored or co-authored over 85 research publications including a chapter of a book and two state-of-the-art reports for International Unsaturated Soil Conferences.

Dr. Vanapalli has been a Co-Chair for the Diamond Jubilee Canadian Geotechnical Conference held in Ottawa, Canada in 2007 and is Co-Chair of the 12 IACMAG, Goa, India in 2008. He has been Technical or Scientific Committee Member for several national and international conferences. He has reviewed publications for several technical journals that include Geotechnique, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Journal of Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering, American Society of Testing Materials, Soil Science Society of America and Transportation Research Board.

Dr. Vanapalli has been nominated by the Civil Engineering Department and the Faculty of Engineering, University of Ottawa for the OCUFA Teaching Excellence Award (2007); University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Teaching (2006); Civil Engineering Department for the John V. Marsh Teaching Excellence Award (2006) and received the Dean’s commendation letters for outstanding teaching evaluations several times. In addition, twelve students of Dr. Vanapalli over the last 6 years have received national honors by the Canadian Geotechnical Society for submitting best undergraduate (individual and group thesis) and graduate student papers.

Dr. Vanapalli is a volunteer for several activities of Canadian Geotechnical Society, Professional Engineers of Ontario and TC6 of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering which is responsible for promoting cooperation and exchange of knowledge in the area of mechanics of Unsaturated Soils.

More details about Dr. Vanapalli is available in Additional Info.

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Lecture Title: DESIGN OF FOUNDATIONS USING THE PRINCIPLES OF UNSATURATED SOILS