Prof. Helmut F Schweiger, President of the Austrian Geotechnical Society & retired Professor from Graz University of Technology

After obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Wales, Swansea, UK Prof. Helmut F. Schweiger joined the Institute for Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Computational Geotechnics at the Graz University of Technology where he was initiating and leading the Computational Geotechnics Group for 25 years. Although now formally retired from the university, he remains actively engaged in research and serves on several international committees. His main research interests are the development of multilaminate models for soils and the assessment of the influence of the constitutive model for solving practical problems, in particular deep excavations, deep foundations and tunnels. His research is reflected in more than 350 publications in International Journals and Conference Proceedings and invitations to keynote and plenary lectures at International Conferences on Soil Mechanics and Computational Geotechnics. Professor Schweiger serves on the editorial boards of several leading journals, including Geotechnique (2004-2007, 2018-2020), Computers and Geotechnics and currently as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Geomechanics. In 2005 he received the "Excellent Contributions Award Regional" of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics, the "Best Paper Award" of the Japanese Geotechnical Society and in 2010 the "George Stephenson Medal" of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, UK for a paper published in Geotechnique. He delivered the Szechy Lecture, the Suklje Lecture in 2018 and the Jennings Memorial Lecture in 2025. Prof Schweiger is the current president of the Austrian Geotechnical Society and the Chairman of the upcoming 21 International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering to be held in Vienna in June 2026.