On April 24, 2009 the Purdue Geotechnical Society hosted the 7th G.A. Leonards Lecture, in honor of Professor Gerald A. Leonards, a Purdue geotech faculty member from 1946 to 1991,  a great of the geotechnical engineering profession , and a friend, professor, mentor and inspiration for many in the geotechnical engineering community .

This year’s Leonards lecturer is Professor Bernard Amadei of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Dr. Amadei, a distinguished expert in the  field of rock mechanics, and a leader in the areas of sustainability, international development, and engineering education, is known also for his deep involvement in Engineers Without Borders a non-profit humanitarian organization which partners engineers and engineering students with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life. Dr. Amadei, like Jerry Leonards, shares with other five previous Leonards lecturers the distinction of being a member of the National Academy of Engineers.

In his lecture, entitled Engineering with a Human Face, Dr. Amadei, the  founding President of Engineers Without Borders - USA (www.ewb-usa.org) and the co-founder of the Engineers Without Borders-International network (www.ewb-international.org), discussed the challenges and opportunities associated with providing sustainable, equitable and appropriate solutions to the basic needs of about 5 billion people whose job is to stay alive by the end of the day; and emphasize that addressing today's developing world problems requires the education of a new generation of globalized engineers working hand-in-hand with local communities, governments, and international development organizations and an engineering profession willing to interact with other disciplines.

The lecture, co-sponsored this year by Purdue University’s Chapter of Sigma Xi, was held in Fowler Hall in Purdue University's Stewart Center.

As in previous years, the Leonards lecture was preceded by a workshop. The topic of the 7th Purdue Geotechnical Society Workshop, inspired by this year’s Leonards lecture, was Sustainable, Stable, and Equitable Communities: Near and Far. It included key-note lectures by Dr. W. F. Brumund, of Golder Associates, on "Ethical, Design, and Cultural Considerations when Working Primarily Outside the United States" and by Professor Rabi Mohtar, Director of the Purdue Global Engineering Program on "Global Engineering Trends", as well as nine other shorter presentations.  Support for the PGS workshop and Leonards lecture is provided by the following sponsors: Earth Exploration, Inc., Indianapolis; Fugro Consultants, Inc., Houston; Golder Associates, Atlanta; Haley and Aldrich, Boston.

Additional information on the Leonards lecture and the PGS workshop can be found at https://engineering.purdue.edu/PGS.

For more information contact Cathy Ralston (catherin@purdue.edu).