30 is a round number, and I think it requires a little bit of reflection. In the beginning, we were just part of ASCE – everyone was kind of mixed up in the same civil engineering stew. In 1936, the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division was established. In 1974, it was renamed the Geotechnical Engineering Division. And then in 1996, the Geo-Institute was established. You can read more about the founding of the Institute in the current issue of GEOSTRATA – Past President Larry Roth has an article in there, very irreverently titled “Present at the Creation.” I think it’s fair to say that we’ve had some growing pains along the way, but there were some really exciting times and some massive achievements as well. I think every one of us here should be very proud of what we’ve dond all that stuff that comes along with it. This is our chance to show the rest of ASCE what makes G-I special, especially why our members are so loyal and dedicated. Change keeps coming, and we’re ready for it. We must also take a moment to address the massive figures our community lost in 2025. This happens every year, but 2025 was remarkable. Two individuals with G-I award lectures named for them passed away last year: Carl Monismith and Shamsher Prakash. We lost the incomparable Juan Pestana in the fall. And two legends of field trips and field work: Dick Goodman and Dave Rogers. And so many more – it was a really tough year. I woke up on my 30th birthday with really bad pain in both my knees. It was probably because I had played basketball a couple times the previous week and got banged up, but I remember thinking “Is this how it’s gonna be every day from now on?” And it wasn’t – here I am today, no worse for the wear. On my 40th birthday, I rolled my ankle on the baseball field down the street from our house. And yet I walked up here on stage pretty easily. They’re just days. The round numbers are just round numbers. We have 365 days every year to make the memories we want to make. I hope that when our friends and colleagues – and those other Institutes next year – look at us, they think that we’re taking full advantage of what we’ve got and that they see us making those amazing memories. Thank you all for being here to celebrate with us, and for helping us build this incredible community that we’re proud to call family – and for being the light and the day to guide the coming generations. - BK Music in this video: Polyphonic Spree - Light and Day. From the 2002 album The Beginning Stages Of... Also features the poem "20,000 Years Ago, Lake Bonneville Dreams a City" by Katharine Coles, University of Utah. The Geo-Institute is a technical society with about 12,000 geotechnical engineers and geologists as members. Find out more or join at http://www.geoinstitute.org. #geotechnicalengineering #geotech #civilengineering #geocongress2026 Show more