Introduction: Dr. Delwyn Fredlund—41st Terzaghi Lecturer

Abstract

Dr. Delwyn Fredlund has spent approximately 40 years conducting research on the behavior of unsaturated and expansive soils. Most of his career was spent at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, where he organized the Unsaturated Soils Group for research into unsaturated soil behavior. His research studies have involved many areas of unsaturated soil behavior, ranging from the flow of water and air through unsaturated soils to the shear strength and volume change of unsaturated soils. Dr. Fredlund is a native of Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1962 he obtained his BSc degree from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Immediately following his BSc degree, he went to work for the Division of Building Research of the National Research Council in Saskatoon. He then went on to obtain his MSc degree in 1964 from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Following his MSc degree, he worked as a consulting geotechnical engineer for R.M. Hardy and Associates in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1966, Fredlund accepted a position in the Dept. of Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. In 1973 he earned his PhD after returning to the University of Alberta for his studies. Returning to the University of Saskatchewan, he developed a research program focused around the behavior of unsaturated soils and the numerical modeling of unsaturated soils problems. During his career he supervised over 65 MSc and PhD graduate students. He became the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan from 1989 to 1994. He has also been appointed as an Adjunct Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, as well as at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. In addition, he is an Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., Canada and a Research Professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. He has recently been appointed as an Honorary Professor at NHRI and Hohai University, Nanjing, China. Dr. Fredlund served as the Chairman of the TC6 committee on Unsaturated Soils of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering for 12 years. He took early retirement from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000 in order to be able to fully devote his time to do research on unsaturated soil behavior and the solution of practical geotechnical engineering problems in various parts of the world. His work on unsaturated soil mechanics has taken him to many countries of the world as a lecturer, a teacher, and a consultant. He has undertaken international programs of collaboration with countries such as China, Africa, and Vietnam. Dr. Fredlund is a member of numerous professional societies such as: the American Society of Civil Engineering, the Canadian Geotechnical Society, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and