T.H. Wu Distinguished Lecture

The T.H. Wu Distinguished Lecture is a signature event in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering. Presented yearly, the lecture features prominent scholars and practioners in the field of geotechnical engineering. The lecture is held in honor of the late Dr. Tien H. Wu, professor emeritus and former chair of CEGE.

2021 T.H. Wu Distinguished Lecturer: D.V. Griffiths

D. Vaughan Griffiths, PhD, DSc, PE, D.GE, C.Eng, FICE, Dist.M.ASCE, is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. His research interests lie in application of finite element and risk assessment methodologies in geotechnical engineering, and his papers on slope stability analysis are among the most highly cited in the geotechnical engineering literature.

He is the co-author of three textbooks that have gone into multiple and foreign language editions on “Programming the Finite Element Method”, “Risk Assessment in Geotechnical Engineering” and “Numerical Methods for Engineers”. He gives regular short-courses on Risk Assessment for practitioners, with recent offerings in China, New Zealand, Australia, Colombia, Norway, Canada, Taiwan and the USA.

Professor Griffiths is an editor of Computers and Geotechnics and is a past editor of JGGE and Advisory Panel member of Géotechnique. He has acted as a consultant to industry on projects ranging from landslide analysis to petroleum geomechanics. In 2017, he was named the Cross-Canada Lecturer by the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the same year received the H. Bolton Seed Medal from the ASCE/Geo-Institute. He served on the Board of Direction of ASCE from 2010-2013 representing Region 7, and was inducted as a Distinguished Member of the ASCE in 2020.