DFI Magazine January/February 2020 - 31

DFI Represented at Panamerican Conference in Mexico
DFI participated as a cooperating
organization for the XVI Panamerican
Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering "XXI Century:
Lessons Learned and Future Challenges," in
Cancún, Mexico in November. The
c o n f e re n c e w a s p ro m o t e d b y t h e
International Society for Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE),
Mexican Society of Geotechnical Engineers
(SMIG), DFI and ASCE's GeoInstitute.
Walter Paniagua of Pilotec in Mexico City
served as chair of this landmark event,
directing an effective organizing and
technical leader team including Juan Paulin
Aguirre of Soletanche-Bachy, secretary; Juan
de Dios Alemán Velásquez, treasurer;
Alexandra Ossa López, chair of the

Industry-Academia collaboration panelists

technical committee; Norma Patricia López
Acosta, chair of the editorial committee; and
a band of dedicated committee members.
Over 600 members of the international
geotechnical engineering community
attended the conference, which included
short courses, technical presentations,
panel discussions and named lectures,
presented in English and Spanish with
simultaneous translation. The proceedings
can be found at www.issmge.org. A video
of the conference highlights can be viewed
at https://youtu.be/_e6IfhII7FQ. The
conference showcased the festive culture of
Mexico with Mariachi bands playing
traditional classical music and the beautiful
Cancún setting.
DFI's involvement in PanAm2019 reinforces our ongoing commitment to support
SMIG. Since 2013, DFI has partnered with

Walter Paniagua, Pilotec, conference chair

SMIG to present a two-day conference on
geotechnical and foundation engineering
in Mexico City. The PanAm2019 event
coincided with the 2019 SMIG-DFI Conference, and so this year DFI collaborated
on the broader ISSMGE event organized in
Mexico. The PanAm conference is
organized every four years to foster collaboration of geotechnical and foundation
engineers and contractors from North,
Central and South America.
The four-day conference opened with
nine concurrent short courses. ISM-DFIADSC collaborated to present a course on
micropile design and construction led by
John Wolosick, P.E., D.GE, Keller, and Jesús
Gómez, Ph.D., P.E., GEI Consultants, which
was attended by over 25 participants.
Mary Ellen Bruce Large, DFI director of
technical activities, served with Paniagua
and Jarbas Milititsky, Milititsky Consultants,
Brazil, as chairs of the technical track on
Foundations and Retaining Structures. The
track attracted over 80 abstracts and paper
submissions and included four sessions
with technical presentations and keynote
lectures. Professor Anne Lemnitzer, Ph.D.,
P.E., University of California, Irvine, opened
the foundation sessions on a high note with
her keynote lecture on DFI-funded research:
"Laterally Loaded Pile Behavior at Soil-

DFI WiDF and Women in Engineering Panelists

DEEP FOUNDATIONS * JAN/FEB 2020 * 31
DFI Magazine January/February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DFI Magazine January/February 2020
