2017 CROSS-USA LECTURE TOUR SCHEDULE
Dr. George Filz, the Charles E. Via Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been selected as the 2016-2017 Cross-USA Lecturer for the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Selection criteria include prestige in the geoprofessional community, professional achievements, and lecture abilities. Dr. Filz's Cross-USA lecture topics are:
Deep Mixing. This presentation focuses on deep mixing for support of levees, floodwalls, dams, transportation embankments, retaining walls, tanks, and other structures. Integration of design, construction, and QC/QA is illustrated with case histories.
Seepage Barriers. This presentation addresses vertical barriers constructed by mix-in-place and excavate-and-replace methods, including appropriate QC/QA activities illustrated with case histories.
Geotechnical Engineering at Kennedy Space Center. This presentation describes geotechnical aspects of infrastructure renovation at Kennedy Space Center, including stability of the track-mounted transporter that carries heavy lift vehicles along the crawlerway from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pads, crawlerway surface treatment, Vehicle Assembly Building foundations, and stabilization of slope protection slabs to resist shaking from rocket blasts.
Column-Supported Embankments. This presentation addresses: load transfer from the embankment to columns and the surrounding foundation soil, with and without basal geosynthetic reinforcement; total and differential settlements of the embankment surface; and lateral spreading.
Dr. Filz’s teaching, research, and practice interests include foundation engineering, soil-structure interaction, soil improvement, and seepage barriers. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Strategic Highway Research Program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and others. Dr. Filz has served as a consultant on a variety of projects in the US and internationally. Notable assignments include: deep mixing stabilization for support of Buckeye Lake Dam, Chabot Dam, Linville Dam, Perris Dam, several Louisiana levees including LPV-111, Kitmat LNG Facility, Choctawhatchee Causeway, and the Third Runway Reclamation at Hong Kong International Airport; seepage barriers at Bolivar Dam, Herbert Hoover Dike, La Esperanza Dam, Marysville Ring Levee, and a soda ash mine in Wyoming; and numerous pile-supported floodwall projects in Louisiana where battered piles are subject to large bending moments caused by ground settlement and water loading. Dr. Filz is a Fellow of ASCE and the recipient of several ASCE awards, including the 2003 Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, the 2006 J. James. R. Croes Medal, the 2011 Florida Project-of-the-Year Award, and the 2016 Wallace Hayward Baker Award.