Dr. Peter Kaiser to Deliver Muir Wood Lecture at WTC 2016

Dr. Peter K. Kaiser, professor emeritus at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, has been selected to deliver the annual Sir Alan Muir Wood Lecture during the opening session of the 2016 World Tunnel Congress, April 25, in San Francisco.  Kaiser will address the topic “Ground Support for Deep Underground Construction.”

The Muir Wood Lecture is presented annually as part of the opening ceremonies for the World Tunnel Congress, the annual conference of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA). Kaiser’s lecture will discuss the challenges of managing highly stressed ground in civil and mining projects.

Kaiser draws on experiences in deep mining and Alpine tunneling where static and dynamic failure processes caused shallow and deep-seated rock mass failure. Findings from collaborative research and “real world” experiences will be merged to highlight sound engineering design practices that respect the reality of construction and the demand for workplace safety.

The primary conclusion highlights the need for improvements in better anticipating the rock mass behavior at the tender stage and the need to design ground control measures from a perspective of practicality and deformation compatibility.

Kaiser is a graduate of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, and the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Since 1987 until his recent retirement, he was Professor and Chair for Rock Engineering and Ground Control at the Bharti School of Engineering of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada.

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Kaiser is the author of more than 300 technical and scientific geomechanics publications. He has received many awards including awards from the International Society for Rock Mechanics, the Canadian Geotechnical Society and the Canadian Institute of Mining. He is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) and the Canadian Academy of Engineers and, in 2013, was awarded the Julian C. Smith Medal of for his “Achievements in the Development of Canada” and was named the “Tunneller of the Year” by the Tunnelling Association of Canada. He was recently selected to present the 2016 MTS lecture at the 50^th U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium in Houston, Texas, where he plans to cover a complementary topic “Underground Rock Engineering to Match the Rock: A Fresh Look at Old Problems.”

He is a specialist in applied research for underground construction and mining. His interests lie in geomechanics, mine design, rock engineering and the application of innovative technologies to increase mine safety and productivity. He brings extensive experience from both the industrial and academic sectors, having served as consultant to numerous consulting companies, mines and public agencies.

About the Muir Wood Lecture

The Muir Wood Lecture, which began in 2010, is named in honor of Sir Alan Muir Wood, an English engineer who served as the first president of ITA from 1974-77 and was active in ITA until his death in 2009. Muir Wood was known for his views on tunneling, which included pushing for innovation to increase economy and safety amidst the uncertainty that characterizes the tunneling market.

About the World Tunnel Congress

The World Tunnel Congress 2016 is being organized by the Underground Construction Association of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (UCA of SME), the U.S. representative to ITA. It is being held April 22-28, 2016, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.