3rd International Geotechnical Symposium (IGS2009) on Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Prevention and Reduction

July 22~25, 2009
Harbin, China

China is a land of thousand million people with diverse cultural, social and religious heritage. It has attracted visitors from all parts of the world who have been fascinated by the co-existence of the old and new. The varied geological features of the country surrounded by mountains and seas give many challenges to geotechnical engineers.

Harbin, is modern city and the cradle of Jin and Qing Dynasties and the settlement of multi-nationalities. Situated in the belt within 44°04′N to 46°40′N and 120°42′E to 130°10′E, the city is located in the temperate zone with a character of continental climate. The Songhuajing River, like a shining pearl string, winds through the domain of this distinctive, celebrated city in the northeast China. The well-webbed branche of the river affords a luxuriant vegetation. The black soil here is promisingly fertile and the forest is a symbol of treasury. Harbin has an area of 53200 square kilometers. Agriculture is famous for top quality rice, soy bean, and corn. In Mountain area, there grow some wild economic plants such as ginseng, live in the black edible fungus and mushrooms. The city is very famous on ice and snow festival in January and also summer resort in July.

About HIT

Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) was founded in 1920 as a technical school and now, 87 years later, has developed into a large multi-disciplinary nationally renowned university with science, engineering and research as its core. Since 1954, HIT has been designated as one of China’s leading institutions of higher education and as such has received significant financial support and investment from the Central Government. HIT now has 21 schools (departments), including 73 undergraduate programs, 147 masters' programs, 81 doctoral programs, 18 post-doctoral research stations, 18 national key disciplines, and 32 national & provincial (ministerial) key labs. The university employs 809 professors, 1,141 associate professors, including 22 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. At present, there are 42,695 full-time students including 25,035 undergraduates, 11,794 master degree candidates and 4,387 doctorial degree candidates. HIT has signed academic cooperation agreements of friendship with 126 institutions of higher education in 24 countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Russia. Cooperation and exchanges are carried out between HIT and these universities via exchanging students, faculty and research staff, holding academic conference and cooperating in scientific research.