Professor Ioannis Vardoulakis, one of the founders of Alert Geomaterials, a pillar of the European Geomechanics scientific community, the promoter of most of the Alert scientific initiatives, passed away on September the 19th 2009. His funeral took place in Athens on Tuesday September the 22nd.

Ioannis was full professor at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Physics, Department  of Mechanics of National Technical University of Athens. He was born on 03-22-1949 in Chania, Crete. He received his Diploma of Civil Engineering in Structural Engineering in 1972 from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. He then became a PhD student at the University of Karlsruhe under the guidance of Professor Gerd Gudehus.

He spent the first 14 years of his academic carrier in Karlsruhe, became full professor at the University of Minnesota and finally, in 1990, Professor of Mechanics in Athens.

Ioannis will be surely remembered as an expert on mathematical geomechanics modelling, for his contributions in the fields of experimental geomechanics, constitutive theory, computational geomechanics, bifurcation and localization theory in geomechanics, liquefaction, fluidization, internal erosion and multiphase flows in porous media and fractional moisture diffusion (subdiffusion).

His exceptional scientific talent was successfully enriched by both an unusual fervour and a warm character. We will miss him for ever.

In memory of Prof. Ioannis Vardoulakis, a fund has been established to support his students. For those wishing to make a donation, the bank details are:

"Foititiki Merimna"
National Bank of Greece
IBAN account number: GR67 0110 0800 0000 0805 4510 196
BIC/SWIFT : ETHNGRAA

About ALERT - Geomaterials
The Alliance of Laboratories in Europe for Research and Technology (ALERT) "Geomaterials" has been created in 1989 as a pioneering (at that time!) effort to develop a European School of Thinking in the field of the Mechanics of Geomaterials.
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Cooptation of New Members
ALERT is proud to announce the cooptation of three new members to the Alliance. We welcome CEMAGREF, Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunis.

alert 2010 MEETING
ALERT Workshop and Doctoral School 2010 will be organized from Monday October 4th to Saturday October 9th 2010 in Aussois.

The ALERT Invited Lecture 2010 will be given by Prof. A.P.S. Selvadurai, professor at McGill University.

alert 2009 MEETING
ALERT Workshop and Doctoral School 2009 was organized from Monday October 12th to Saturday October 17th 2009 in Aussois. The final program is available.

The ALERT Invited Lecture 2009 was given by Dr. Suzanne Lacasse, managing director of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institue NGI.

The ALERT PhD Prize 2009 was granted to Dr. Bertrand François from EPFL in Lausanne for his PhD thesis entitled Thermo-plasticity of fine-grained soils at various saturation states: application to nuclear waste disposal.

The annual Poster Session was held during the Workshop.