Dear ISTVS Colleagues and Friends,
On behalf of the ISTVS, the Board of Directors and myself, thank you for being part of our society! As 2021 ends and 2022 arrives, it is wonderful to greet all our old and new members. Thank you for participating in our online events, for sending your papers to our conference and to our journal, for reading our news, and for spreading the word about ISTVS.
This year continued to be a challenging one due to the Covid-19 impact throughout the world. Our society adapted and, thanks to Professor Jozsef Kovecses and Massimo Martelli, in September we held the first online ISTVS conference: The ISTVS 20th International and 9th Americas Conference of the ISTVS. Our deep appreciation for all their work, as well as to Jenna Dixon, the graduate students volunteers, and everyone else who helped organize the event.
At this conference, the Board of Directors elected Dr. Paul Ayers as ISTVS fellow. Dr. Ayers has been an ISTVS member since 2004 and served as U.S. National Secretary. He retired from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2020. He published over 100 peer reviewed publications in the areas of ROPS (Rollover Protective Structure), GPS-based vehicle tracking, vehicle impact analysis, soil compaction, and vehicle terrain impact modeling. We congratulate Dr. Ayers for becoming an ISTVS fellow, thank him for all his contributions to the society, and wish him an enjoyable retirement.
At the same conference in September, Dr. Sally Shoop received the Bekker‐Reece‐Radforth Award. Dr. Shoop retired in November 2021 from her position of Senior Research Engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering Research and Development Center, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Over her career Dr. Shoop published over 100 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Shoop brought significant contributions to the development of the New Generation NAATO Reference Mobility Model (NG-NRMM), mobility applications on ice and snow, vehicle terrain impacts analysis, finite elements modeling, and soil and snow strength measuring equipment. She served as ISTVS President, 2011-2014. She also served as the Journal of Terramechanics Editor-in-Chief, and, more recently, as Deputy General Secretary for Americas. We congratulate Dr. Shoop for the Bekker‐Reece‐Radforth Award and thank here for all her contributions to the society.
The Söhne-Hata-Jurecka Award has been shared this year between Dr. Genya Ishigami and Dr. Ramon Gonzalez. St. Christopher Lecture has been awarded to Mr. Henry C. Hodges, Jr. Congratulations to all of them!
It is also my pleasure to welcome Ms. Heidi R. Howard as the new Deputy General Secretary for Americas and Dr. Linnea Hansson as the Regional Secretary for Scandinavia, replacing Dr. Ole Gellin. We thank Dr. Gellin for his service and we wish Ms. Howard and Dr. Hansson all the best in their new positions.
In 2021 our society has been very active. Several activities have been continued:
Research Initiative, led by Dr. Alex Keen
Twitter — @istvs
Journal of Terramechanics (IF 2.446), co-Editor-in-Chiefs Dr. Vladimir Vantsevich and Dr. David Gorsich
Published the updated ISTVS Standards
New Initiatives have been started:
ISTVS became an affiliate society of FISITA (effort led by Dr. Lutz Richter and Dr. Günter Hohl)(https://go.fisita.com/)
First Session co-organized at FISITA Sept. 2021 (2 ISTVS papers)
Organized two live ISTVS-hosted watch parties moderated by Dr. Ramon Gonzales, Mr. Massimo Martelli, and Dr. Lutz Richter:
Mars Perseverance Rover Landing in February
Mars Tianwen-1 Lander and Zhurong Rover Landing in March
Terramechanics Bite (6)
Student Research Seminar (6)
The digital events have been very well received and attended by a good number of participants. Our students enjoyed sharing their research and received great feedback from the more senior attendees.
Many thanks to Ms. Jenna Dixon and Mr. Renee Melendy for their support to our society!
For 2022 I would like to encourage all our current and future members to continue to produce high quality research, and to submit it to the Journal of Terramechanics and the ISTVS conferences. Our society is open to incorporate new research directions related to vehicle-terrain. We are also committed to reach out to more students and get them involved in our society. I personally hope to continue and increase the collaboration within regions and between regions, to actively involve the national and regional secretaries to spark new initiatives, and to increase the number of members of our society.
We are looking forward to the 11th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS to be held in September of 2022 in Harbin, China, and thank Dr. Liang Ding for his efforts in organizing the conference, and we hope to see you there!
Happy New Year, 2022! Health, happiness, and prosperity to all!
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Corina Sandu
President ISTVS
Virginia Tech