In my first year as Honorary Editor, Géotechnique received 220 submissions and published 44 papers and 17 technical notes in 10 issues. This is more or less the level of activity over the past few years. The Géotechnique Advisory Panel met in London nine times and conducted business by e-mail three times and so decisions on publication were made on 12 occasions in the year. Processing, reviewing and assessing articles to Géotechnique standards is a major undertaking for the Advisory Panel, for the Thomas Telford secretariat and for the army of external reviewers and I would like to thank them all.
In the summer Mary Henderson, who had looked after Géotechnique for the past 8 years, retired from Thomas Telford. Many will remember her quiet efficiency in administering the Advisory Panel and managing the throughput of papers. Several past editors and I relied heavily on her. We thank her and wish her well. Géotechnique is now administered jointly by Kathleen Hollow and Craig Schaper, both of whom also administer several other ICE journals.
The first two issues in 2007 will contain a Symposium in Print on ‘Stiff Sedimentary Clays—Genesis and Engineering Behaviour’. On Monday 14 May 2007 there will be a meeting at ICE at which there will be additional Keynote Lectures and discussion on the published papers. The Symposium in Print and the meeting have been organised and managed by a sub-committee of the Géotechnique Advisory Panel chaired by Dr Robert May and we are grateful to them.
If you go to www.geotechnique-ice. com and look on the left-hand side you will find links to a number of pages of the history of Géotechnique. My predecessor Guy Houlsby assembled the information and I am grateful to him for this interesting and valuable resource. Among the wealth of information there you will discover that the first issue of Géotechnique was published in June 1948 so our 60th birthday will be in June 2008. We are planning suitable celebrations.
