self-introduction

[van <van@rock.civil.saitama-u.ac.jp>]

I am a D3 student at Saitama University, Dept.of Civil and Environmental 
Engineering, Rock Mechanics Lab. Before comming here, I got my B.Sc. in Geology 
in the former USSR (Baku) (1979-1984) and my M.Sc.in Geotechnical Engineering in 
Thailand (AIT) (1992-1994).So I consider myself both a geologist and a 
geotechnical engineer (to be more specific, I major in Rock mechanics). My M.Sc. 
thesis was on "Ground response and support performance in the exploratory 
tunnel, Lam Ta Khong Pump Storage Project, Thailand" and my Dr.Eng. thesis would 
be on "Changes in the mechanical behavior of soft rocks due to unloading process 
(excavation) and their application to rock engineering - lab testing and 
numerical simulation".

Geotechnical engineering, and more specific Rock Mechanics, became an 
independent science only a few decades ago, being thus a relatively new branch 
of geosciences, especially for us, the Vietnamese. As far as I know, there are 
about 10,000 rock mechanics researchers in China, 2,000-3,000 in Japan and to be 
strict, none in Vietnam. To be true, some Vietnamese geomechanics researchers 
were educated one or two decades ago in the former USSR but the Soviets 
themselves are 20-30 years behind the world (most notably the US) and these few 
people do not work now as such. In the South, there may be some tens of people 
working in the field of geotechnical engineering, most of them are in Soil 
Mechanics. In the North, I think I know only 5 geotechnical engineers, one got 
Ph.D.from Sweden and the other 4 all got M.Sc. from AIT (among these two went on 
to pursue Ph.D.).Only recently was the Geotechnical Engineering Society of Viet 
nam established by Mr. Nguyen Truong Tien (Ph.D.Sweden). Geotechnical 
engineering as an independent science is not taught yet in most of universities 
of North Vietnam and only recently that the Hanoi university plans to open a new 
department that would include geotechnical engineering subjects.

Meanwhile, Geotechnical Engineering including Rock Mechnics is very important if 
one wants to build high-rise buildings, dams, power plants, subways, tunnels, 
mining, slopes etc. and if Vietnam does not have its own personnel, it would end 
up with having to hire overseas experts. And if Vietnam wants to have those as 
many as Japan (more or less the same population) does, it would be still quite a 
long way to go.

Although I would like to be of some help to Vietnam, I feel very lonely in this 
field. Overseas, I heard of only 3-5 Vietnamese researchers. For example, during 
the last International Rock Mechanics Congress held in Tokyo 1995, there were 
only 2 Vietnamese, one was me from Japan and another one from France. During the 
most recent int.conference on Rock Mechanics, held in New York 97 (Int.and 36th 
US Rock Mechanics Symposium 29 June-2 July) only these same two people sent 
their papers (but I could not attend because of visa problem).

Briefly, the message I would like to post here is that do I have some collegues 
in the US, among the VNSA members or their friends, who share my feeling and who 
would also like to be of some help to our country in this aspect.

Thank you and sorry for the lengthy introduction.

Best regards to all of you.

Van