Edil receives USUCGER award
The United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER) has awarded Prof. Tuncer B. Edil the 2007 USUCGER Distinguished Service Award in recognition for his dedication, contributions, and service to the USUCGER community. USUCGER was founded in 1985 to provide advocacy for the continued development and expansion of high quality geotechnical engineering research and education by US academic institutions.

Benson commended by ASCE
During the 2007 ASCE GeoInstitute's National Conference, Prof. Craig H. Benson received the "Commendation for Service as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering". Prof. Benson has just stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of the leading journal in the field of geotechnical engineering.

UW-Madison alumnus receives Casagrande Award
UW-Madison alumnus, Prof. Ahmet Aydilek (CEE - University of Maryland), has received the 2006 Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Prof. Aydilek received his doctorate from UW-Madison in 2000 under the supervision of Prof. Tuncer B. Edil. The Casagrande Award is the highest ASCE research award given to a junior researcher and was established to provide professional development opportunities for outstanding young practitioners, researchers, and teachers of geotechnical engineering.

Haimson and Chang receive paper award
Dr. John Hudson, U.K., the President of the International Society of Rock Mechanics, announced that the paper entitled "Non-dilatant deformation and failure mechanism in two Long Valley Caldera rocks under true triaxial compression" by Dr. C. Chang (former UW-Madison PhD student and Post doc) and Prof. Bezalel Haimson (published in 2005 in the Intl. J . of Rock Mechanics) has been awarded the 2006 American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA) Rock Mechanics Research award. The award will be presented at the Annual U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium, June 18-21, 2006.

PCA Education Foundation Fellowship Awarded to Baugh
GeoEngineering graduate student Jeremy Baugh received one of the six Portland Cement Association Education Foundation Fellowship Awards in the amount of $20,000. This competitive fellowship supports a wide variety of educational activities that increase public knowledge regarding appropriate uses of cement and concrete. The title of Baugh’s research project is “Investigation into the Use of Cement Kiln Dust for Reconstruction of Bituminous Roads”. The project will be supervised by Professor Tuncer B. Edil.

Cope receives prestigious fellowship
GeoEngineering graduate student Daniel Cope has been selected to receive a 2006 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. Mr. Cope was selected by the Army Research Office (ARO) from nearly 3,600 applications that were received this year. The NDSEG Fellowship will cover Mr. Cope's tuition and required fees, and will provide yearly stipend for three years at any accredited U.S. college or university. This very prestigious fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense (DoD). Its goal is to provide the United States with talented, doctorally trained individuals who will lead state of the art research projects in disciplines related to national defense. Dan Cope's research advisor is Professor Craig Benson.

Fratta paper receives special commendation
The Technical Organizing Committee of GeoCongress2006 on Geotechnical Engineering in the Information Technology Age, Atlanta, Feb 26-March 1, 2006 selected the following paper for special commendation — in the SENSING METHODS AND DEVICES track (one of the four major conference tracks) by Prof. Dante Fratta (GLE and CEE): "The Use of Low-Cost MEMS Accelerometers for the Near-Surface Monitoring of Geotechnical Engineering Systems," Keith Hoffman, Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Richard Varuso, USACE, New Orleans, LA, USA; and Dante Fratta, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.

2006 GeoCongress Conference — Student Competition
The 2006 GeoCongress Conference Student Competition has concluded and the winners were announced. The UW-Madison team formed by the Geo Engineering students including Craig Schuettpelz, a GLE senior. Other tem members were Ake Sawangsuriya, Emre Biringen and Victor Damasceno. Nineteen teams from Europe, Asia and US (including three teams from UW-Madison) participated of this challenging event. The contest was entitled "Information Mining and Geotechnical Site Characterization Design" and involved researching the Hurricane Katrina's time line and proposing engineering solutions for the collapsed levee system in New Orleans. The submitted papers were reviewed by an international panel of experts. The second placed teams received $500. All participating students will also receive flash cards to reward their efforts. Prof. Dante Fratta (GLE and CEE) was the advisor to the team.