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Geoffrey Eustace Blight

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Geoffrey Eustace Blight
Born30 June 1934
Pietersburg, South Africa
Died7 November 2013
Johannesburg, South Africa
Alma materUniversity of Witwatersrand

Imperial College University of London

University of Cape Town
Scientific career
Doctoral advisorProfessor Alan Bishop


Geoffrey Eustace Blight (30 July 1934 – 7 November 2013) was a professor in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits), serving twice as head of department.[1]

For his significant contributions to civil engineering he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Southern Africa (1991), Honorary Fellow of the South African Institute for Civil Engineers (1997) and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (2000)[2]. In recognition of his work in geotechnical engineering he was the 1997 Rankine Lecturer[3].

Background

Geoff was born in Pietersburg, South Africa, on 30 July 1934 and was educated at Benoni High School. He was married to Rhona and had three daughters. He completed his final textbook Unsaturated Soil Mechanics in Geotechnical Practice[4] only a few days before he died on 7 November 2013 [2].He graduated from Wits with a BSc (Eng) in Civil Engineering in 1955. After spending a short time with the consulting company Kanthack and Partners, Blight returned to Wits to complete his MSc in 1958 on internal stability of filters under the supervision of Jere Jennings[5].

Following this, he was awarded the Witwatersrand University Council Scholarship to study overseas and elected do his PhD at Imperial College. Geoff investigated the behaviour of partially saturated soils under Professor Alan Bishop in 1961[6]. Results from his meticulous laboratory testing are used to this day in calibrating numerical models[3].

Returning to South Africa, he joined the staff at Wits for two years before joining the National Building Research Institute in Pretoria. Here Blight was part of a busy team investigation problem soils including dolomites, heaving clays and collapsible soils[2].

Geoff re-joined Wits in 1969. Due to restrictions of his appointment, he diversified his research focus into the study of pavements, alkali-aggregate reaction in concrete, solid waste disposal, pressures in silos and underground ore passes. His focus later returned to soil mechanics being primarily applied to mine tailings, and other industrial and municipal solid waste[2].

Throughout his career, Blight was an active consultant to major corporations, mining houses, contractors and engineering consultants. Commenting on his consulting work Geoff said, “This is probably one of the reasons why my studies have been well received, partly because they have been based on practical engineering problems.”[7]

Setting higher doctoral degrees as research goals, Professor Blight was awarded a DSc(Eng) from University of London in 1975, a DSc(Eng) from Wits in 1985, a DSc(Eng) from University of Cape Town in 1993 and finally another DSc(Eng) from Wits in 2001. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering by Wits in 2009.[2]

Contributions

Blight’s many papers on the behavior of tailings have contributed significantly to the safe disposal of mine waste in South Africa. His works include his influential textbook Geotechnical Engineering for Mine Waste Storage Facilities[8] and the Guideline to Design and Construction of Mine Waste Disposal Systems published by the Chamber of Mines, South Africa.

He also contributed to improving municipal solid waste disposal through his work on Minimum Standards for Waste Disposal by Landfill published by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and co-authoring the International Solid Waste Association’s paper on Application of Graded Standards to Landfilling in Developing Countries.[2]

He also carried out extensive research on unsaturated soils, with particular emphasis on residual soils. His many papers on this, formed the basis of two textbooks Mechanics of Residual Soils[9] and textbook Unsaturated Soil Mechanics in Geotechnical Practice[4]. Geoff served on technical committees of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) on unsaturated soils and residual soils (former chairman). In recognition of his work on unsaturated soils, the Blight Lecture is delivered every four at International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ICSMGE) conferences[10].

Another area he contributed to was material science and material handling. His work on concrete is contained the textbook Alkali-aggregate Reaction and Structural Damage to Concrete: Engineering Assessment, Repair and Management[11], which was co-authored with Mark Alexander. His work on material handling is contained in Assessing Loads on Silos and Other Bulk Storage Structures[12].

Awards

Professor Blight received numerous awards including the ASCE’s J James Croes Gold Medal for innovation in research (1975), A-grade researcher status by the South African Foundation for Research Development (1989-2002), Distinguished Research Award by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (1989), the Telford Premium by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (1991), delivering the Rankine Lecturer to British Geotechnical Society (1997), South African Geotechnical Gold Medal by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (1997), the Institute for Waste Management of Southern Africa President’s Award for exceptional service to the waste management profession (2002) and a commendation from the Italian National Group for Prevention of Hydrogeologic Hazards for research into flow failures of tailings dams (2003).

In 1991 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Southern Africa. Also in 1991, he became a Founder Member of the South African Academy of Science and Founder Member of the South African Engineering Academy (1991). The South African Institute for Civil Engineers elected an Honorary in 1997 and he was made a Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2000.

References

  1. ^ "A brief history - Wits University". www.wits.ac.za. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Day, P.; Gohnert, M.; Burland, J. (2014-10-01). "Geoff Eustace Blight". Géotechnique. 64 (10): 846–847. doi:10.1680/geot.14.O.001. ISSN 0016-8505.
  3. ^ a b Blight, G. E. (1997-09-01). "The Rankine Lecture". Géotechnique. 47 (4): 713–767. doi:10.1680/geot.1997.47.4.713. ISSN 0016-8505.
  4. ^ a b Blight, G. E. (2013). Unsaturated soil mechanics in geotechnical practice. Boca Raton. ISBN 978-1-315-88293-2. OCLC 855679120.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Blight, Geoffrey Eustace (2015-01-09). The investigation of filter sands and the establishment of a criterion for the condition that a sand is a filter in itself (Thesis thesis).
  6. ^ "PhD graduate 1968 - Geoff Blight". Imperial College London. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  7. ^ "Prof Geoff Blight: Distinguished academic and practical engineer - personalia". Civil Engineering = Siviele Ingenieurswese. 1999 (8): 15–16. 1999-08-01. doi:10.10520/AJA10212019_22895.
  8. ^ BLIGHT, GEOFFREY E. (2020). GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FOR MINE WASTE STORAGE FACILITIES. [S.l.]: CRC PRESS. ISBN 0-367-57721-6. OCLC 1156991511.
  9. ^ Mechanics of residual soils. G. E. Blight, E. C. Leong (2nd ed ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press. 2012. ISBN 978-0-203-11470-4. OCLC 797820896. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ "The International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering". www.issmge.org. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  11. ^ Blight, G. E. (2011). Alkali-aggregate reaction and structural damage to concrete : engineering assessment, repair, and management. Mark G. Alexander. Leiden, The Netherlands: CRC Press/Balkema. ISBN 978-0-203-09321-4. OCLC 748266545.
  12. ^ Blight, G. E. (2006). Assessing loads on silos and other bulk storage structures : research applied to practice. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-39237-3. OCLC 62493330.
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