Suzanne Lacasse Lecture

Honoring significant contributions to geotechnical engineering and risk assessment

About the Lecture

The Suzanne Lacasse Lecture was established in June 2015, with the approval of the ISSMGE Board, to honor the significant contributions to the geotechnical profession of Dr. Suzanne Lacasse. This Lecture is to be delivered as keynote lectures at major conferences by the world's leading scholars/practitioners in Engineering Practice of Risk Assessment & Management.

Dr. Suzanne Lacasse

Dr. Suzanne Lacasse

Dr. Suzanne Lacasse

Technical Director, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI)

Managing Director of NGI from 1991 to 2011

Dr. Lacasse was born in the small town of Noranda in northern Québec, Canada. She did first a Bachelor of Arts and then took her education in Civil Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique of Montréal and MIT.

She was Managing Director of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) from 1991 to 2011, and now acts as Technical Director at NGI. During the early part, she concentrated on soil behaviour modelling and foundation engineering and design.

She concentrated on combining mathematical and numerical analyses with practical geotechnical engineering design. She was a key member of the NGI-team developing practical design analysis procedures for offshore platforms subjected to storm loading.

Since the mid 80s, she developed and applied statistics, probability and reliability methods to assist in foundation design and decision-making. She is well known for her contributions on hazard and risk assessment and risk management.

Honors and Awards

  • 2001: 37th Terzaghi Lecture on Offshore Geotechnics
  • 2013: 8th ISSMGE Terzaghi Oration on Landslides
  • 2015: 55th Rankine Lecture on Hazard, Risk and Reliability in Geotechnical Practice
  • PhD's Honoris Causa from University of Dundee and Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • Member of National Academy of Engineers in USA, Canada, Norway and France
  • Honorary Professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou
  • Chair of the Slope Safety Technical Review Board in Hong Kong
  • Author of over 300 scientific papers

Lecture Series

Professor Vaughan Griffiths
1st Lecture
Professor Vaughan Griffiths
Colorado School of Mines, USA
Delivered at APSSRA 2016, Shanghai (China), May 28-30, 2016
Professor Gregory Baecher
2nd Lecture
Professor Gregory Baecher
University of Maryland, USA
Delivered at Geo-Risk 2017, Denver (USA), June 4-6, 2017
Dr. Farrokh Nadim
3rd Lecture
Dr. Farrokh Nadim
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Norway
Delivered at 19 ICSMGE, Seoul (Korea), September 17-22, 2017
Professor Kok-Kwang Phoon
4th Lecture
Professor Kok-Kwang Phoon
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Delivered at ISGSR2019, Taipei (Taiwan), December 11-13, 2019
Professor Limin Zhang
5th Lecture
Professor Limin Zhang
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Delivered at APSSRA2020, Tokyo (Japan), October 4-7, 2020
Professor Bob Gilbert
6th Lecture
Professor Bob Gilbert
The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Delivered at ISGSR 2022, Newcastle (Australia), December 14-16, 2022
Professor Jianye Ching
7th Lecture
Professor Jianye Ching
National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Delivered at Geo-Risk 2023, Arlington, Virginia (USA), July 23-26, 2023
Professor Charng Hsein Juang
8th Lecture
Professor Charng Hsein Juang
Clemson University, USA
Delivered at ISGSR 2025, Oslo (Norway), August 25-27, 2025