Pamukcu travels to Turkey to speak on soil mechanics

Sibel Pamukcu, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, was recently invited to give a keynote address at the 9th Turkish National Symposium of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering in Istanbul.

Pamukcu’s address was titled “Geoenvironmental Engineering: Cooperative Research and New Horizons.”

Since the devastating 1999 earthquake in Turkey, most research into soil mechanics in the country has aimed to improve foundations for earthquake mitigation. Recently, confronted with increasing industrial and mining-related pollution of subsurface and groundwater, Turkish researchers and the government have sought economic solutions for such local problems as soils contaminated with petroleum and groundwater contaminated with arsenic and other heavy metals.

In her address, Pamukcu discussed emerging methods and technologies which use advanced sensors to assess the fate of contaminants in the subsurface and which effectively reduce or remove them using in situ hybrid methods. One of those methods combines advanced materials and electrochemical processes.