GEORGE GAZETAS has been for 30 years Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, following an academic career in the USA, where he taught at SUNY-Buffalo, Rensselaer (RPI), and Case Western Reserve University. His research interests have focused on the dynamic response of footings, piles and caissons; the seismic response of earth dams and quay-walls; soil amplification of seismic waves; and soil?structure interaction problems. Much of his research has been inspired by observations after destructive earthquakes. An active writer and teacher, he has been a consultant on a variety of (mainly dynamic) geotechnical problems. He received a number of awards for his research contributions, including the Walter Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from ASCE, and the Excellence in University Teaching Award in Greece. He has delivered the Coulomb (2009) and Ishihara (2013) Lectures. In March 20, 2019, he will present the 59th Rankine Lecture in London.

Dr. Lyesse Laloui is chaired professor leading the Soil Mechanics group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL, Lausanne. He is the recipient of an Advanced ERC (European Research Council) Grant for his project BIOGEOS (BIO-mediated GEO-material Strengthening). He is the Editor in Chief of the International journal Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment. He received the “Excellent Contributions Award” of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics in 2008, the “2012 Vardoulakis Lecture” from the University of Minnesota, the "12th G.A. Leonards Lecture" from the University of Purdue in 2014, the “2016 RM Quigley Award” from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the 30th Roberval Award at the French Academy of Science in 2018. He has been involved as an expert in several international projects and acts as a consultant in civil, geotechnical and geothermal engineering, including legal and arbitration cases.

Professor Yeliz Yukselen-Aksoy has been a full-time faculty member in the Geotechnical Engineering Division of Department of Civil Engineering of Dokuz Eylul University since 2015. Prior to that she was a full-time faculty member at the Celal Bayar University. She received a B.S. from Dokuz Eylül University in 1998, and an M.Sc. from the Dokuz Eylül University. She received his Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Dokuz Eylül in 2007. She was also at University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Civil and Materials Engineering for one year as a visiting professor. Her research efforts have focused on environmental geotechnics, ground improvement, surface properties of clay minerals, remediation of contaminated soils. Dr. Yukselen-Aksoy published over 40 papers, 1 book chapter, approximately 30 conference proceedings. Dr. Yukselen-Aksoy has received several awards; Turkish National and Scientific Research Council Scholarship, many publication performance awards and Fabed Foundation Outstanding Achievement Award.

Wissem Frikha, was born in 1976 in Tunisia. He is an expert in the areas of computational geomechanics, analytical modelling, ground improvement techniques, soil behaviour, laboratory and in situ testing, etc. He has a civil engineering degree and a Master of Science in modelling of soils and structures from ENIT. He obtained a PhD degrees in civil engineering from ENIT in Tunisia and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussée (ENPC) in Paris, France and a HDR in civil engineering from ENIT. He has done his Post doctorate degree in ENPC (Paris, France). He is an Associate Professor in ENIT. Since 2000, he has been a civil (geotechnical) engineering consultant for several public and private sector clients from many countries. He is Vise-president of Tunisian Society of Soil Mechanics (ATMS), General Secretary of International Committee on Pressuremeter (ICP) and Vice-Chair of Steering Committee of GeoMEast International Conference 2017, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. He is Author/coauthor of more than 20 articles in international journals with referees; 50 communications published in proceedings of international. Editor of 5 proceedings in international publishers. He is chair of Organizing Committee of ISP’7- 2015 International Symposium of Pressuremeter and Third International Conference of Geotechnical Engineering, ICGE 13, Tunisia 2013. He is reviewer in several international journal in geotechnical engineering and associate editor of Innovative Infrastructure Solutions journal and Arabian Journal of Geosciences

Dr. Sebahat Gok Kalmaz graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Civil Engineering Faculty as a Civil Engineer in 1994. She completed her Master and PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at the same university while being a research& teaching assistant, before joining Private Sector, Dar Al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) in 2008. She was a visiting scholar at UWA- COFS, Australia to conduct centrifuge testing on piled raft models for a year in 2004. She has been possessing a Senior Geotechnical Engineer position at Dar Al-Handasah-Dubai office with a strong academic and practical background in the design and follow-up on foundation and geotechnical engineering projects for mixed-use complexes, prestigious urban developments, road structures and infrastructure utilities. She has publications and contribution in workshops, conferences and seminars related to soil mechanics and foundation engineering.