Mr. Geoffroy Caude (left picture) of France was nominated as vice-president to replace Mr. Srikumar Ghosh, whose mandate has come to an end. Besides being a civil engineer of "Ponts et Chaussées", Mr. Caude (48) has a masters degree in Water Resources from Newcastle University and is a PhD in History and Civilization from the University of Nancy II. His expertise is in the field of logistics, port management and port equipment. He served as Development and Equipment Manager at the Port of Le Havre, and is currently the General Manager of the Technical Institute for Marine and Inland Navigation, which is the reference institution in France for maritime and inland navigation techniques. Mr. Caude is a member of PIANC since 1995, and an active member of EdCom and MarCom. As vice-president, he will have the publications policy and the relations with French speaking countries in his attributions.

Miss Sandra Knight (right picture) from the US was nominated as chairperson of InCom to replace Mr. Christian Jamet whose mandate has come to an end. She is the first female chairperson of InCom and also the first female member of ExCom since the establishment of PIANC. Miss Knight is a PhD in civil engineering of Memphis University, where she graduated with a dissertation on "Physical model studies for Riprap design of tow-induced forces." She is the acting deputy director for Research and Development at the US Army Corps of Engineers in Washington DC and holds a permanent position as technical director for Navigation at the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory of the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, MS. She has been with PIANC since 1989 and was a member of InCom since 1998.


Rules and Regulations modified

The General Assembly has approved several modifications to the "Rules and Regulations" and to the "Recommendations to National Sections." We highlight amongst others : new rules for representing the association; at least 50 percent of CoCom members should come from countries in transition; possibility of publishing a "Technical Brief" to be considered at kick-off meeting of Working Groups; specification of rules for the De Paepe Willems Award and for the Jack Nichol Award. For the full text of the modified "Rules and Regulations" and of the "Recommendations", we refer to the PIANC website at www.pianc-aipcn.org/rulesregulations.html.


Venue for future AGA's and 2010 Congress

The PIANC Presidency is looking for suitable candidacies for organising the AGA's of 2007, 2008 and 2009, as well as for the 32nd Congress to be held in 2010. As for the latter, only one candidacy has been received in writing so far, presented by the British National Section. Other verbal expressions of interest were not yet confirmed. In order to facilitate the decision making, the President has now been authorised to negotiate with potential host countries for presenting candidacies at the next Council meeting in December.


New publication policy

After a long preparatory process in EdCom, ExCom, National Sections and the previous AGA and Council, the Fukuoka AGA has now approved a new Publications Policy. Headlines include a relaunch of the Bulletin, which will have a "News from the Navigation Community" section as from January 2005. In this respect, a network of dedicated correspondents is established, reflecting the powerful synergy of an association like ours. Correspondents are expected to send in two short news items per Bulletin, which they consider might be of interest to a wider audience. We do not expect literary talent, but two short feature articles of 1 paragraph each will do. The content may refer to news from within the National Section, or from the broader navigation community. For the time being and until 15 December at the latest, these news items will further be included in "Sailing Ahead." From Bulletin/Magazine 118 on (15th January 2005), navigation news will be inserted in the Magazine after the "Technical Articles" section, and the Newsletter will be limited to news from within PIANC itself.

National Sections are urgently requested to send in the names of their correspondents to our Editing Officer at mvo@mvo.be.


And the winner is…

U.K. section representatives Stephen Cork (chairman of PIANC UK section, left), Peter Hunter (mentor of the DWA 2004 winner, second from left) and Mike Torn (chairman of PIANC UK, right) and the PIANC president Eric Van den Eede (second from right) proudly pose for the picture with the De Paepe Willems Award 2004 winner, Edoardo Faganello (middle).

This year's De Paepe Willems Award was presented to Mr. Edoardo Faganello of Great Britain for an article on "Hydraulic modelling to revise the sluice gate control logic at Cardiff Bay barrage." An edited version of his article will appear in one of the next Bulletins. With the kind permission of the British National Section, we reprint some remarks by Mr. Faganello in the British PIANC Newsletter :

The paper is about Cardiff Bay Barrage, a tidal exclusion barrier forming a 200 ha freshwater lake by impounding the flows from the rivers Ely and Taff. A fully automatic system controls the gate movements and maintains the normal bay level by responding to changes in bay and sea water levels. My task was to construct a hydraulic model to examine the reasons for frequent gate movements experienced during the sluice gate commissioning tests. The model was then calibrated, verified and revised operating rules were implemented in the control system.

As river engineer at Gibb Ltd (now Jacobs), with no experience in maritime engineering, I was very happy to be asked to work with Peter Hunter and to be involved in this fascinating and different project.
It was he who first introduced me to PIANC and when he initially proposed me to compete in the Young Professionals Award last year I was reluctant. I simply replied that I did not have any research experience and therefore I had no chance to win this award (I had never won anything in my life!). But he insisted on and he eventually persuaded me to accept this challenge. Now, one year later, I do not surely regret that decision!

As a young engineer I have to say that going to Fukuoka was a beautiful and unforgettable experience. Although the trip was quite long and not so comfortable the welcome at our arrival was very warm. The hotel accommodation was excellent and it comprised a fantastic view of the port and ocean…The conference was very well organised and I met professionals from all over the world. The PIANC British Section is currently one of the most active within the whole Association and this is the result of enthusiasm and dedication showed by our Chairman Stephen Cork and all British members.

As young professional I hope I will have soon the opportunity to work in one of the international Working Groups. This would represent a good chance for me to share my skills in hydrology and hydraulic modelling and learn more about coastal and port engineering. I would like to encourage more graduates and young professional to take an active role in PIANC. I think this is a real and genuine way to improve expertise and knowledge as professionals in a stimulating environment, not only technical but also social.

The 2004 De Paepe-Willems Award winner, Mr. Edoardo Faganello (middle) and his girlfriend Silvia (left) are congratulated by the PIANC president, Eric Van den Eede (right) after Mr. Faganello's outstanding presentation of his work entitled "Hydraulic modelling to revise the sluice gate control logic at Cardiff Bay barrage" at the PIANC AGA meeting 2004.

In the particular context of rejuvenation, PIANC wants to have young professionals become more involved in its activities. One of the four vice-presidents, Mr. Hartmut Brühl (picture), has been following up contacts with the young professionals and has acted as their mentor over the past year. In Fukuoka, the PIANC Council decided to encourage National Sections to have young professionals joining a Working Group. Countries will be allowed to send two representatives to a Working Group, provided one of them is a young professional. In addition, young professionals are invited to attend ExCom meetings as an observer. A young professional's representative is already an effective member of EdCom. A dedicated part of the PIANC website is reserved for communication among young professionals. Young professionals who are willing to become part of this unique "Network of the Future", are advised to give up their name at yp@pianc-aipcn.org.