NU SEDS Prof. Alfrendo Satyanaga and PhD Student Make History at 8th Asia-Pacific Unsaturated Soils Conference

This conference have provided a forum for researchers and practitioners in the region and beyond (including Kazakhstan) to present their latest developments and exchange ideas in the subject, with strong relevance to problems in the region such as heave/desiccation shrinkage, collapse, landslide, debris flow, flooding, settlement. The latest developments in unsaturated soil mechanics will also lead to a much better understanding and solution of many emerging problems such as soil/atmosphere interaction, thermal and chemical influence, and climate change.

The 8th Asia-Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils took place at Melbourne, Australia, between 4 and 6 of Dec 2024, and was organized by the Monash University and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. More than two hundred participants registered for the Conference, and more than one hundred and fifty papers were included in the Proceedings along with the written versions of several Keynote Lectures, invited lectures, and Blight Lecture.

Prof Alfrendo Satyanaga from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has successfully delivered technical papers on "GeoBarrier System incorporating Waste Materials" which written together with Prof Jong Kim as well as with PhD Student, Rezat Abishev.

Gerarldo Davin Aventian, a PhD's Student from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has successfully delivered his technical paper on "New Apparatus for High-Soil Suction Measurement Under Low Temperatures " which was written under the supervision of Prof Alfrendo Satyanaga and Prof Jong Kim.

The presentation from Prof Alfrendo Satyanaga and Gerarldo Davin Aventian, Nazarbayev University, is the first time in history that faculty and students from Kazakhstan have had a golden opportunity to present at this prestigious unsaturated Conference.

This conference will be extended to Special Issues in two prestigious Q1 journals (within 10% percentile in Scopus), Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (JRMGE) and Computers and Geotechnics (C&G). Currently, paper by Prof Alfrendo Satyanaga and group is under review for possible publication in JRMGE while paper by Gerarldo Davin Aventian and group is under review for possible publication in C&G.