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Preface
In my welcome speech which was delivered at Turin, Italy, after it became clear that 12th IACMAG Conference will be held in India, I recall having said:
I am deeply moved by the favor bestowed upon me by the members of the selection committee
for deciding to hold the 12th IACMAG conference in India. Getting an approval of our presentation, our visions and policies, and the confidence shown by the committee members in believing in our ability to hold the Conference, in itself, is a rare honor for which we express our heartfelt gratitude and thank the August body. We pledge to meet your expectations, and strive to go beyond them, in organizing this conference.
In keeping with our culture and customs, with bowed heads and folded hands, we cordially
invite you all to spend a few days with us and enjoy traditional Indian hospitality while remaining engaged in our primary goal of creating a piazza for discussions on
scientific and technological advancements and achievements in the field of Geomechanics. We also request that you to extend this invitation, on our behalf, to the colleagues
who could not attend this conference, and to the upcoming younger generation of achievers with vision of global development.
That was three years ago. Today, I am glad to inform you that the conference has received an
overwhelming response and attracted about 1200 Abstracts from 47 countries with representation from all the continents. However, about 600 papers were finally accepted. Each
paper was peer reviewed by at least two reviewers and in many cases the paper selection was based on the comments of three reviewers. The peer review process was a mammoth
task and there are no words to describe their Herculean efforts. Based on their recommendations it has been suggested that ORAL or POSTER & INTERACTIVE presentations be
given. In addition, 12 Keynote papers are scheduled for presentation during the course of this conference. Such a huge turnout of the papers would require printing on about
5000 pages; hence, we have printed the Souvenir containing only the Abstracts and all papers are included in this CD.
With a sense of great pleasure, I present the proceedings of the 12th conference of the
International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG), which is held in Goa from October 1-6, 2008. The theme for the Conference has been
chosen as Geomechanics in the Emerging Social & Technological Age.
Needless to say, I am grateful to the authors for contributing their papers to this conference
and making it a successful event.
I would like to thank IACMAG for giving us an opportunity to hold this conference in
India. I hope we were able to meet its expectations in arranging the 12th IACMAG conference. I would like to thank each and every individual who has been associated with the conference, directly or indirectly, without their support, the conference would not have gotten off the ground.
I am indebted to the co-chairs, members of various committees, the Sponsors and "our
associates" for extending continuous help, support and imparting invaluable guidance through out the course of the planning and execution of various activities related to this
conference.
Prof. D N Singh
Department of Civil Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering Division
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
POWAI, MUMBAI- 400 076 (INDIA)
August 2008
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