Geotech = Geo-Tech or GeoTech or just Geotech

I am not sure who coined the word Geotech or Geotechnical, but to me it looks like that British Geotechnical Society might be the first one to officially integrate the word in its Society's Official Name. The word lingered there for long time before it became a house hold name replacing the lengthy "Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering" to just Geotechnical Engineering. Because of internal competition between IAEG, ISRM and ISSMFE, the ISSMFE was not allowed to use the word "Geotechnical" exclusively in its new name ISSMGE, which would have been better of with the IGS. I can not simply understand why the ISRM and the ISSMGE simply merge and form a unified International Geotechnical Society. Anyway, keep on watching the FIGS (Federation of International Geotechnical Society) is coming soon. And, they might increase your membership fee. Anyway, in this blog posting lets focus on the validity of the use of "T" and "hyphen" in the middle of the word "Geotechnical".

Some geotechnical colleagues along with a majority of non-geotechnical engineers or people outside geotechnical profession continue to write Geo-Tech (hyphen), Geo-Technical, GeoTechnical, GeoTech or like that instead of realizing that the Geotech or Geotechnical is a single word: without any hyphenation or without capitalization of T in the middle of the word. Even world's top publishers of the book in Geotechnical Engineering like John-Wiley, McGraw Hill, and others write the word incorrectly using Hyphen. I think that the ISSMGE should bring this issue into attention and clearly identify that Geotech word does not have any hyphen or capitalization of 'T' in the middle of the Geotech word.

Next, I would like to raise the issue is that the Microsoft Word had been around us as a main player in Word Processing business for more than two decades (it might have different versions), but when you install MS Office for the first time and try to type the word Geotech or Geotechnical, the MS Office's dictionary does not recognize it. The ISSMGE should officially request to MS Office and other leading Dictionary Publishers to include this word in their dictionaries. It is very disappointing that after half a century since the word was coined first in the BGS's name, the leading dictionaries around the world still do not recognize Geotech or Geotechnical word. Our profession has been the major player to bring world to current state of skyscrapers and underground tunnels, but the Dictionaries don't recognize us, and it is shame on their part for the negligence, and we, especially, the ISSMGE members are also partly responsible for not acting on time. Later better than never, the ISSMGE should officially request major Dictionary producers to include the word, and the ISSMGE should provide them a precise and concise definition of the word in understandable language so that the normal public understands our profession or they get some cursory idea on our profession. Well, it might be attributed to our ISSMGE's President and General Secretaries who enjoy secretaries to type their documents, and also installation of MS Office in their newly bought computers (other way around: they are not familier with installation part), and the vetran secretaries that they have skillfully add the "Geotechnical" or "Geotech" word in their computer's customized dictionaray. Such that ISSMGE Pres, VPs, and GS never notice that the MS Office does not recognize the word "Geotech" or "Geotechnical". Lets not forget that if a word is not recognized by a leading dictionary, it implies that it does not recognize the profession itself. Is not that shameful?

Like majority of my Geotech colleagues, I am also very proud that I have chosen this profession knowingly or unknowingly. When I decided to go for Masters Degree, I did not have a real knowledge on the gravity of this profession, and it was just a soil mechanics and foundation engineering subject to me. I had a great interest in FEM (Thanks to my mentors Prof. AK Jain, Prof. PN Godbole, and Prof. GC Nayak at Roorkee University / now IIT/Roorkee), and there is a very thin air blown up on the scope of FEM in Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering while I studied FEM at my undergraduate level. After I started my M. Eng. studies at AIT/Bangkok, I started see and feel it as an interesting and a challenging profession, especially because every problem in Geotech is unique, and it requires unique solutions. That is why it always remains a dynamic profession, and it can not be a stagnant profession or a profession that does not have a saturation point. Because of all these reasons, I do care whether my profession is well described in any leading dictionary or not. I want our leaders at ISSMGE raise this issue ASAP, and continue to make us proud of them and our profession.

I wish all my Geotech colleagues to have another great day in this great profession.

Dr. G. Pokharel