The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) has selected Kenji Ishihara, a world-renowned expert on earthquake geotechnology, as the featured speaker for its 40th annual conference.

Ishihara will deliver a  presentation titled, “Destruction of Seawalls and Coastal Dikes by Tsunami During the 2011 East-Japan Earthquake and their Restoration” at the Oct. 12-15 event in Oakland, Calif.      

Ishihara graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1957. After a period of research at the University of Illinois, he returned to the University of Tokyo where he became professor of civil engineering. He remained at the university for 40 years.

During his time as professor he was active in the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (ISSMFE), serving as president from 1997 to 2001. Ishihara was particularly effective in advancing the work of Technical Committee TC4 – earthquake geotechnical engineering and in establishing the new discipline of earthquake geotechnology. After retiring from the University of Tokyo, he took up the post of professor of geotechnical engineering at the Tokyo University of Science and then at Chuo University.

The DFI is an international association of contractors, engineers, academics and suppliers in the deep foundations industry with more than 3,300 members worldwide. For more information about the Deep Foundations Institute, visit www.dfi.org.