Geo-Institute Boston Chapter Group Report
By Michael T. Flynn, PE, GEI Consultants, Inc.
BSCES established the Geotechnical Group, a technical committee made up of local geotechnical engineering professionals in 1969 for the purpose of “promoting and coordinating technical and professional activities in order to disseminate information” for the benefit of its members. The committee name was changed in 1999 to the BSCES Geo‑Institute to better align with ASCE’s national geotechnical committee, but our basic mission remains the same: to foster continuing education and to provide a venue for the sharing of knowledge between engineers, geologists, and contractors in the geotechnical community. Currently, the Geo-Institute Boston Chapter Committee consists of seventeen geotechnical professionals from local consulting firms, specialty construction companies, and academic institutions, who proudly volunteer their time to serve the BSCES and the engineering community in the manner originally set forth in 1969.
In 2019 and early 2020, our committee’s 50th anniversary, we were excited to continue to promote our practice and provide technical activism for geotechnical engineers at all levels in the Boston area. We held the 3rd Charles C Ladd Memorial Lecture and began breaking from only having traditional dinner meetings to holding more contemporary socials at local bars and breweries.
As with most organizations, 2020 has presented unprecedented challenges to the group as we all deal with the pandemic personally and professionally. Most of our planned events were postponed, including 18th Arthur Casagrande Memorial Lecture, which had been planned for the fall.
Despite the pandemic, we were excited in June 2020 to award a scholarship through the Leo Casagrande Fund. The Leo Casagrande Memorial Fund was established by the BSCES in 1990 in honor of Dr. Leo Casagrande and is managed by the Chairperson of the BSCES Geo-Institute. The purpose of the Fund is to provide a scholarship to a senior undergraduate or graduate geotechnical engineering student at a Massachusetts college or university. The scholarship, the first in several years, was awarded to Sarah Condon. Sarah is working toward her BS/MS degree concurrently at Northeastern University and is scheduled to graduate in Fall 2021. There were several strong candidates, many of whom would have been a suitable recipient of the scholarship, but Sarah’s commitment to the geotechnical field and excellent recommendations stood out to the committee. We are privileged to have so many hardworking and talented young geotechnical engineers in the community; we congratulate Sarah for being a leading example of our bright future. We were fortunate to receive a replenishment of the fund by Leo’s son, Dirk, to ensure local geotechnical students can continue to receive scholarships this year and in the future.
In 2021, we hope we can reestablish our active engagement even if it means using new ways to connect our geotechnical community. In February 2021, we are planning a four-part webinar series, Lessons Learned in Geotechnical Engineering. We look forward to continuing the Arthur Casagrande Lecture tradition and will look to award a 2021 Leo Casagrande recipient in Spring 2021. Look out for further details and other upcoming events in future editions of the BSCES Newsletter.
Finally, I would like to thank all past and present committee members, their employers, and our other contributors. Our excited and engaged geotechnical community helps to continue fostering the technical excellence and professional development for our current and future geotechs. We are always looking for additional members - geotechnical practitioners in the public or private sector or educators who are interested in getting involved in the committee’s activities and promoting our mission. For more information, please contact the committee chair, Michael Flynn, at: geo.institute@BSCES.org.
