A brief History
of
the IACMAG and Past IACMAG Conferences

The International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) was incorporated as a non-profit organization in the State of Arizona, USA, in 1987/1988 with the Secretariat at the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.

The history of IACMAG started in 1972 with the first conference on Applications of the Finite Element Method in Geotechnical Engineering held in Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA. The International Committee for Numerical Methods in Geomechanics was established in July 1976 after the Second International Conference on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. Subsequently, in view of vigorous international activities and interest, IACMAG was founded at the time of the sixth conference, in Innsbruck, Austria, 1988. The conference, sponsored by IACMAG, was then named the International Conference on Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics. Hence, the term “IACMAG Conference” was used from seventh conference, Cairns, Australia.

A Board of Directors for IACMAG was formed and Dr. Chandra S. Desai assumed the responsibility as the President. John Booker (now deceased) assumed the position of Vice President of IACMAG. Subsequently, Drs. W.D. Finn, G. Gioda, S. Sakurai, and G. Swoboda have assumed the task of Vice Presidents, and Dr. T. Kundu as Secretary.

IACMAG organizes its conferences about every three years. A very high technical content and quality are the main attributes these conferences are known for. Previous conferences were held in the United States, Germany, Canada, Japan, Austria, Australia and China. Details of these conferences are available at http://www.iacmag.org/index1.html. Each time, these conferences have been attended by about 350 participants from academic, practicing and government organizations from various countries. The most recent, 11th IACMAG, was held in Turin, Italy, from 19th to 24th June 2005. Participants from about 40 countries attended the Turin conference. Incidentally, IACMAG also acts as the cosponsor of the International Journal of Geomechanics (IJOG) published by The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) - Geo Institute.

“One must certainly say that IACMAG and IACMAG conferences have always been the focal point for developments and advances of numerical methods as applied to geomechanics and geotechnical engineering. It is indeed difficult to think of an important development in this area that has not been reported and discussed in one or more IACMAG conferences.” (Gens, 2004).


For more details on IACMAG please visit http://www.iacmag.org