Geoengineer.org, an International Center for Information Dissemination on Geoengineering, is pleased to announce the following exciting news:

• ADSC - Geoengineer.org Partnership: A new partnership between Geoengineer.org and the International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC- IAFD).
• The 2008-2009 Photo Contest Winners & the announcement of 2009-2010 Photo Contest
• 1st Newsletter Membership Drive 2009-2010

Dimitrios Zekkos, Ph.D., P.E.

Managing Director of Geoengineer.org
Assistant Professor, Geotechnical Group.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Geoengineer.org is pleased to announce a new partnership between our organization and the ADSC: The International Association of Foundation Drilling.

As part of this collaboration, Geoengineer.org will be promoting ADSC's press releases and information on activities, resources, and publications that are expected to be of interest to the broad geoengineering community. ADSC will also be supporting Geoengineer.org's Mission by increasing Geoengineer.org's reach in the Foundation Drilling professional community. Geoengineer.org will be promoted through ADSC's events and publications. ADSC will also support Geoengineer.org in its effort to attract Corporate Sponsors.

This is just a first formal step in a joint effort between the two organizations to better serve the international geoengineering community involved in Foundation Drilling. Through this closer collaboration, I expect more ideas and opportunities for joint projects and activities to arise.

ADSC is a 1,000 plus corporate and individual member not-for-profit professional trade association. ADSC: The International Association of Foundation Drilling is a not-for-profit international trade association headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The ADSC establishes standards and specifications; conducts Drilled Shaft Foundation, Anchored Earth Retention, and Micropile Design and Construction Seminars; offers field, supervisory, and management training programs for its members; develops and promotes safety materials, training programs, and OSHA certification training; interfaces with government agencies at the national, regional and local levels; funds scholarships and research; publishes a monthly magazine; and maintains a technical library. The association is represented at the regional level by Chapters which address issues of local importance. Through these activities, the ADSC seeks to advance the state-of-the-art in the foundation drilling and anchored earth retention industries. The ADSC represents drilled shaft, anchored earth retention, and micropile contractors, civil engineers, and foundation drilling, anchored earth retention, and micropile equipment manufacturing firms worldwide. Please check out their website at http://www.adsc-iafd.com for more information.

The 2008-2009 Photo Submission competition has been completed. A total of 229 photos have been submitted by 12 members this last year, and now the Geoengineer.org Photo Gallery includes 730 photos, making it most likely the most comprehensive online geotechnical photo gallery.

The Winners of the 2008-2009 "Geoengineering Photo Contest" who won a Geotechnical Book as a prize for their participation, are:

Sadrekarimi Abouzar (top photo), PhD. Geotechnical Engineer, Golder Associates Ltd.
Sent the most photos (87 photos) for the Geoengineer.org Photo Gallery during 2008-2009.

Nazari Afshar Javad (bottom photo), PhD student in Geotechnical engineering in SRBIAU (Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University) Iran, University teacher at IAU University SHAHR-E-GHODS branch.
The lucky winner of the lottery.

We are pleased to continue the Geotechnical Photo Contest in 2009-2010. Submit photos and you may win geotechnical books. Read here for instructions on how to submit photos. Books will be given to the individual who submitted the most photos, as well as one individual randomly (see tentative list of books here). This means that you could win a book, simply by submitting one photo to the gallery. Don't miss that opportunity! You may be this year's winner!

Have you been following the newsletter for many years now? Do you find it useful? It is time to spread the word further. We are pleased to announce our 2009- 2010 Membership Drive is now in progress! We invite you to recommend to us colleagues that you think will be interested in our newsletter.

How it works? You may use the online FORM (or contact us directly) and recommend to us new potential members. We will then send these individuals an e- mail informing them about your recommendation and we will ask them if they object in being members of the newsletter. If they do not, we will add them in. Once they become members, you will be eligible to win prizes. We will give prizes to the individual who identified the most new members of the newsletter, as well as to one more randomly selected person. Prizes will include conference registrations and/or geotechnical books. So don't delay, recommend your colleagues to us and help us grow our membership.

The Geoengineer Newsletter is a publication of Geoengineer.org and is distributed to its 5,900 subscribed members and various additional mailing lists.