Kim Dong-Soo, pioneer in geotechnical engineering, dies at 59

7th March 1961 – 3rd November 2020

The following obituary is distributed by Dr. Choong-gi Chung, President of Korean Geotechnical Society, Professor, Dept. of Civil & Environ. Eng., Seoul National University (SNU).

Korean Geotechnical Society (KGS) joins the community in grief and gratitude remembering the life of professor Dong-Soo Kim. A beloved faculty member of Dept. of Civil and  Environment Engineering at KAIST and the director of the KOCED Geo-Centrifuge Center, died on Nov. 3 of cancer. He was 59.

Prof. Kim was born on 7th March, 1961. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Seoul National University (SNU), S. Korea in 1983. He got Master’s degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the same university in 1985. Then, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA in 1991.  Following PhD, he joined the faculty of the Polytechnic University, New York, USA (currently, Polytechnic Institute of New York University) and worked for three years as an assistant professor. In 1994, he moved to Korea Advanced Institute and Science Technology (KAIST) as a professor. He was also a visiting professor at Utah State University from 2002 to 2003.

The capstone of his career was being the Chair of Organizing Committee of the 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in Seoul, 2017. During his long career at KAIST, Kim conducted research on site characterization by field and laboratory tests, geotechnical centrifuge tests of earthquake and offshore geotechnical problems, seismic design of geotechnical structures, and non-destructive testing and evaluation of civil structures.

He was the General Secretary of the 5th International Symposium on Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials (IS-Seoul 2011, TC101). He also served as a chair of the ISSMGE TC104 committee (Physical Modelling in Geotechnics). Prof. Kim was an editorial board member of various international journals, and a vice president and a board member of the Korean Geotechnical Society (KGS), Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea (EESK), Korean Geo-Environmental Society (KGES), and Korea National Committee on Large Dam.

To colleagues far and wide, he was known as a leader in Korean Geotechnical Society. He successfully carried out key projects related to geotechnical engineering and supervised more than 60 graduate students. Throughout his academic and research career, he authored or co-authored 321 papers in international journals and conference proceedings, and 278 papers in domestic journals and conferences.

For his immense contribution in the field of geotechnical engineering, Prof. Kim has been honored with numerous awards. He was chairman, co-chairman, and keynote speaker of many international-, regional- and national-level conferences and seminars.

Above his impressive professional contributions, Prof. Kim will be remembered forever for his generosity, simplicity, playfulness and his smile.

Kim is survived by his wife, son and daughter. Kim’s funeral service will be held 7 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020 at St. Mary’s Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.