Tributes to Helmut Bock

Helmut Bock obtained a Diploma in Geology from the University of Munich in 1965. For his Diploma he mapped around the landscape around mount Wannig (2493 m) in Austria, just south of the German border. During summer 2022 he climbed the mountain again Then followed research work at the Institute of Soil and Rock Mechanics at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, which culminated in the doctorate, the first under Prof. Leopold Müller. In 1976 he obtained the Habiltation at Ruhr University, Bo-chum. From 1976 – 1991 he was Professor of Geomechanics at James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. There the Borehole slotter for stress measurements was developed and he wrote a book Introduction to Rock Mechanics”, published 1983. A Russian translation was also published by the editor MIR, translated Peace”, which Helmut noted in his 2022 Christmas Letter, alluding to the present situation with war in the Ukraine. He then was Managing Director of Interfels GmbH, Bad Bentheim from 1989 until 1998. Following that he became Geotechnical Consultant and participated in projects for nuclear waste repositories and other projects. From 2001 until 2007 he was head of the section “Engineering Ge-ology” of the German Geotechnical Society (DGGT). Internationally he was active in FMGM Field Measurements in Geomechanics and pushed the standardization issue. He had a friendly dispute with John Dunnicliff on the use of standards and succeeded convincing John on the usefulness of standards.

On Tuesday, January 24th, 2023, the working group ISO TC182/WG2 “Geotechnical Monitoring” had scheduled their 38th meeting, when on Monday the news arrived that Helmut had passed away unexpectedly on Saturday January 21st, 2023. The group was very sad to learn that Helmut had passed away and kept a moment of silence before continuing our work. Helmut had been a member of the working group from the beginning. He had been one of the initiators proposing to CEN TC 341/WG1 a task group for Geotechnical Monitoring. The task group had the first meeting in Zürich Switzerland on January 6, 2010. He had been a very active member of the working group and he was the person that prepared the drafts for Parts 1, 2, 3 and 5 of ISO 18674. His work in the working group on Standards for geotechnical monitoring (ISO TC182/WG2) will be remembered.

Walter Steiner

Convenor of ISO TC18/WG2 Geotechnical Monitoring