Lyesse Laloui

Lyesse Laloui is an Algerian born Swiss scientist. He obtained the master's degree in Civil Engineering in 1987 at the ENTP Algiers. He then continued his studies at École centrale Paris with an advanced Master in Soil and Structural Mechanics in 1989, and a PhD degree (Summa cum laude) in 1993. After a post-doc at École centrale Paris, he joined EPFL in 1994 where he is a full professor in civil engineering.

His main research interests are in geomechanics (Constitutive and numerical modelling of multiphysical coupling processes, laboratory advanced testing), and Environmental and Energy Sustainability (Nuclear waste underground storage, Petroleum Geomechanics, CO2 Geological Sequestration, Geothermal Energy). His most known contributions address the mechanics of unsaturated soils and shales, the thermo-mechanics of clays as well as the development of the thermo-active foundations technology, with over $21 million in research grants, awards and endowments to his credit. He is the recipient of an Advanced ERC (European Research Council) Grant for his project BIOGEOS (BIO-mediated GEO-material Strengthening). He wrote and edited 12 books and published over 300 peer reviewed papers. His work is cited more than 4800 times with an h-index of 33 (Scopus).

He is the Editor in Chief of the International Journal Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment. He was a guest editor for 6 journal special issues, and the Honorary Editor and Chairman of the Geotechnique Symposium in Print 2013 on Bio- and Chemo-mechanical Processes in Geotechnical Engineering. He is a member of the Editorial board of 7 international journals. He is co-founder of the International Joint Research Center for Energy Geotechnics in China. He served as the vice-chair of the ISSMGE TC101 on Experimental Geotechnics. He gave keynote and invited lectures at more than 30 leading international conferences. He also received the "Excellent Contributions Award" of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics in 2008, the "2012 Vardoulakis Lecture" from the University of Minnesota, the "12th G.A. Leonards Lecture" from the University of Purdue in 2014, the "2016 RM Quigley Award" from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the 30th Roberval Award at the French Academy of Science in 2018. He has been involved as an expert in several international projects and acts as a consultant in civil, geotechnical and geothermal engineering, including legal and arbitration cases. He acted as the Chair of the Evaluation Panel of Civil and Geological Engineering R&D Units of Portugal in 2018. The patented "Geosynthetic element for soil bio-improvement" is currently being developed in the context of the start-up MeduSoil. He is also developing another start-up (GEOEG) in the area of Energy Geostructures.

Scientific and Expert Committees

• Chair of the Evaluation Panel of Civil and Geological Engineering R&D Units of Portugal (2018) Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) • Member of the Executive Committee of the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research – Supply of Electricity (SCCER-SoE) – Leader of Work Package Geo-Energies (2017–present) The Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research – Supply of Electricity (SCCER-SoE) relies on the expertise of several Swiss scientific institutions (universities and research centres), industrial companies, and federal agencies. Its aim is to carry out innovative research in the areas of geo-energy and hydropower to support the development and application of the "Energy Strategy 2050", a long-term policy which states the Swiss future energy perspectives. • Member of the Scientific Council of CISM, the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences, Udine (Italy) (2017- 2018) CISM, International Centre for Mechanical Sciences, is a non-profit organization, founded in 1968 to favour the exchange and application of the most advanced knowledge in the mechanical sciences, in interdisciplinary fields like robotics, biomechanics, environmental engineering and in other fields (mathematics, information and system theory, operations research, computer science, artificial intelligence) • Executive Committee representative for the Government of Switzerland in the International Energy Agency Greenhouse R&D Technology Collaboration Program (2016–present) • Member of the EU-ERC Consolidator Grants panel dealing with Products and Processes Engineering - The Consolidator Grant is intended to provide significant support to the most promising researchers of the next generation who are consolidating their research career, usually 7 – 12 years beyond the doctorate (2014-2015).

• "Advanced ERC Grant" by the European Research Council (a grant of 2.5 Million Euros), April 2018. • The 30th Roberval Award for the book "Mécanique des sols et Roches" (ISBN 978-2-88074-961-3), co-authored with L. Vulliet and J. Zhao. Award received at the French Academy of Science in January 2018. Among the former receivers of this award some Nobel prize winners such as G. Charpak et P-G. de Gennes. • The 2016 RM Quigley Award Winner for the best paper published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal in 2015. • International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering webinar entitled "Multiphysical Processes and Design of Thermo-Active Foundations", 2016. • "12th G.A. Leonards Lecture" from the University of Purdue. 2014. • Honorary Editor and Chairman of the Géotechnique Symposium in Print 2013 – Institute of Civil Engineering, UK. • "2012 Vardoulakis Lecture Award" from the University of Minnesota for significant contributions to the field of geomechanics. • "Excellent Contributions Award" of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics, IACMAG, 2008. This is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions in research, academic activities and professional service in the interdisciplinary area of Geomechanics.

Laloui is a frequent keynote speaker in international conferences, i.e.:

• Keynote lecture, International Symposium on Energy Geostructures. "Analysis and design of energy tunnels and walls". Lausanne, 2018. • Invited lecture, Deep Foundations Institute. "Analysis and design of energy tunnels and walls". Chicago, 2018. • Keynote lecture, 7th International Conference on Unsaturated Soils. "Gas shales: geomechanical challenges and analysis". Hong Kong, 2018. • Keynote lecture, ComGEo IV. "Gas shales: geomechanical challenges and analysis". Assisi, 2018. • Keynote lecture, 7th Geotechnical Symposium with International Participation", organized by the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers in Istanbul. "Design of energy geostructures". Istanbul, 2017. • Keynote lecture, 2nd International conference on Geo-Energy and Geo-Environment, GeGe2017 "Advances in energy piles design". Hangzhou, China, 2017. • Keynote lecture, Workshop "Shallow geothermal energy systems. Applications and perspectives". "Design of thermos-active piles". University of Aveiro – Portugal, 2017. • Keynote lecture, "Bochum Underground Space Day 2017" "Geomechanical solutions for Geo-Energy issues". Bochum, Germany, 2017. • Keynote lecture, XVII French-Polish Colloquium of Soil and Rock Mechanics, "Geomechanical solutions for Geo-Energy issues". Lodz, Poland, November 2016. • Keynote lecture, 1st International conference on energy geotechnics, ICEGT 2016 on Energy Geotechnics, "Analysis of the vertical deformation of energy pile groups" Kiel, Germany, August 2016. • Keynote lecture, International mini symposium Chubu - New concepts and new developments in soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, "Analysis of canister movements in an engineered barrier system". Nagoya, Aichi, Japan May, 2016. • Keynote lecture, 8th Conference on Geoengineering. Vysoké Tarty, Slovakia, June 2016. • Keynote lecture, 1st International Conference on Geo_Energy and Geo_Environment (GeGe2015), Hong-Kong, December, 2015. • Keynote lecture, Sixth International Symposium on Deformation Characteristics of Soils, Buenos Aires (Argentina), November, 2015. • Keynote lecture, EAGE Geomechanics and Energy workshop "Geomechanical solutions for Geo-Energy issues", Celle (Germany), October 2015. • Keynote lecture, 6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils (AP-UNSAT 2015) "Testing of the Hydro-Mechanical behaviour of Shales", Guilin, China, October 2015. • Keynote lecture, Prague Geotechnical Days 2015 "Analysis of a volcanic ash slope subjected to wetting and drying cycles", Prague (Czech Republic), May 2015.

• Theme lecture, Environmental Geotechnics Congress, Melbourne (Australia), November, 2014.
• Plenary lecture, GeoShanghai 2014 International Conference, Shanghai (China), May 2014.
• Plenary lecture, 6th International Conference on Porous Media, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA), May 2014.
• Plenary lecture, 14th International Conference of Int. Association for computer methods and advances in geomechanics (IACMAG), Kyoto (Japan), September 2014.
• Keynote lecture, Annual meeting of the Mont Terri Consortium, Saint-Ursanne (Switzerland), February 2014.
• "Multiphysical couplings in (geo)materials". keynote lecture, 1st International Workshop on the Finite Element Code LAGAMINE, Liège (Belgium), September 2013.
• "Hydromechanical analysis of a volcanic ash slope subjected to wetting and drying cycles". Feature lecture, 3rd International Symposium on Computational Geomechanics, Kraków (Poland), August 2013.
• "Hydro-mechanically Coupled Processes in Rainfall-induced Landslide Modelling". Keynote lecture, XVI French-Polish Colloquium of Soil and Rock Mechanics, Montpellier (France), July 2013.
• "Geotechnical Analysis of Energy Geo-Structures". Keynote lecture, European Geothermal Congress 2013, Pisa (Italy), June 2013.
• "Geotechnical Analysis of Energy Geo-Structures". General report, International Symposium CPEG 2013 Coupled Phenomena in Environmental Geotechnics, Torino (Italy), July 2013.
• "Coupled analytical and numerical solutions of CO2 injection induced surface uplift and caprock deflection". Keynote lecture, 3rd Sino-German Conference on Underground storage of CO2 and Energy, Goslar (Germany), May 2013.
• "Advances in the analysis of thermo-active foundations and underground structures". Keynote lecture, International Workshop on Thermo-active Geotechnical Systems for Near-Surface Geothermal Energy, Lausanne (Switzerland), March 2013.
• "Multiphysical Coupled Processes in Underground Nuclear Waste Disposal Problems". Plenary lecture, Computational Methods for Coupled Problems in Science and Engineering IV, Kos (Greece), June 2011.
• "Geotechnical design of energy piles". Feature lecture, 2nd International Symposium on Computational Geomechanics, Cavtat-Dubrovnik (Croatia), April 2011.
• "Mechanics of unsaturated soils: concepts and applications" Plenary lecture, 3rd International Euro-Mediterranean Symposium on Advances in Geomaterials and Structures, AGS’10, Djerba (Tunisia), May 2010.
• "Enhanced viscoplastic modeling of soft soils" Keynote lecture at the 2nd International Workshop on Geotechnics of Soft Soils – Focus on Ground Improvement, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (UK), September 2008.

Professor Laloui has over 250 publications including 221 papers listed in ISI Science Citation Index with an h-index factor of 29.

• École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• Laboratory of Soil Mechanics at EPFL
• Doctoral Program in Mechanics at EPFL
• The Alliance of Laboratories in Europe for Research and Technology (ALERT) "Geomaterials"