Sarah Springman

Sarah Marcella Springman CBE (born December 26, 1956 in London ) is a British engineer, full professor of geotechnics and rector of the ETH Zurich . The former top athlete won numerous national and international titles in triathlon and other sports.

Career

Academic career

Springman studied engineering at Cambridge University (Girton College) and made her bachelor's degree in 1978. She then switched to industry and worked for five years for the engineering company Alexander Gibb on various geotechnical projects in England, Australia and on the Fiji Islands (Monasavu Hydroelectric Scheme), where she supervised the construction of a dam (85 m high, 1.7 million .m³ earth material) and became South Pacific squash champion in sport in 1982. In 1984 she made after her return to Cambridge at St Catharine's College, a master's degree (MPhil) in soil mechanics and also received his doctorate in 1989 in soil mechanics at Magdalene College in Cambridge Soil Mechanics Group of Andrew Schofield at Malcolm Bolton . During her studies she was a reserve officer in the British Territorial Army, most recently with the Royal Engineers. In 1990 she began her academic career as an assistant lecturer and from 1993 as a lecturer in Cambridge and became a fellow at Magdalene College. In 2014 she was made an Honorary Fellow and in 2015 an Honorary Fellow at Girton College and St. Catharine's College. In 2013 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and in 2016 from the University of Bern .

Springman has been a full professor of geotechnical engineering at ETH Zurich since 1997, where she installed, among other things, a geocentrifuge such as was first used by the Cambridge school around Schofield. From 2001 to 2005 and 2009 to 2011 she headed the Institute for Geotechnics. From 2007 to 2009 she was head of the network for natural hazards at ETH Zurich (HazNETH), and in 2013 and 2014 she was deputy head of the Department of Construction, Environment and Geomatics (D-BAUG). She has also been the rector of the university since January 2015.

Her research interests are the interaction between soil and structures as well as the geotechnical aspects of natural hazards, especially in the case of landslides and melting permafrost. Springman has initiated and led many multidisciplinary field tests, including drilling and monitoring campaigns on the rock glacier in Muragl and Murtèl-Corvatsch in the Engadine and on the Furggwanghorn as well as slide experiments above Saas Balen and Meretschibach Bochtür in Wallislingen, in Tössegg and the most famous in Rüd both canton Schaffhausen), where a landslide of 130 m³ caused by artificial precipitation was measured and filmed.

Sarah Springman was involved in various national and international research committees, for example from 2000 to 2007 in the Swiss Science and Technology Council, today's Science and Innovation Council (SWIR). From 2005 to 2010 she was chair of the technical committee in "Physical Modeling in Geotechnics" of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) and in 2010 hosted the four-yearly International Conference on Physical Modeling in Geotechnics (ICPMG) in Zurich on Institute for Geotechnics. She is currently a member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW), the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) (since 2009) and the Women's Engineering Society (WES). In 2017 she gave the Vienna Terzaghi Lecture (Is soil friction fiction? - Is cohesion optional? - A review).

Triathlon

0 Sarah Springman
Personal information
Date of birth	26th December 1956 (age 63)
place of birth	London, UK
societies
successes
1985, 1986	2 × ETU European champion long distance triathlon
1985, 1987	2 × Vice European Champion ETU Triathlon middle distance
1986, 1987	2 × Vice European Champion ETU Triathlon short distance
1987	Vice European champion ETU long distance triathlon
1988	ETU European champion triathlon short distance
1992	National champion triathlon short distance
2010, 2011	2 × Vice European Champion ETU Winter Triathlon (age group)
status
Resigned in 1992

Springman served as President of the British Triathlon Federation from 2007 to 2012 . From 1984 to 1993 she was active as a triathlete herself at the highest level. She not only won 20 European ETU medals (in individual and team rankings), but also took part in the Ironman competition in Hawaii five times (triathlon world championship on the long distance) and was fifth in 1985 and 1987. In 1985 and 1986 she was European champion in the first two years of the triathlon long distance, in 1988 European champion in the Olympic distance (1.5 km swimming, 40 km cycling and 10 km running).

ITU President Les McDonald initiated the ITU Women's Commission in 1990 with Springman as “Co-Chair”. From 1992 to 1996 she was also Vice President of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) and then an honorary member. In 2008 she was re-elected as Vice President and in 2012 re-elected as 1st Vice President. In both phases, Springman was instrumental in making triathlon a place in modern multisport games. She made a major contribution to triathlon achieving Olympic program status and being included in the Commonwealth Games. As ITU Vice President, she also played a leading role in the 2010 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) including the Paratriathlon in the program of the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (2016). She was active in promoting Triathlon Mixed Relay (women and men together as a team) as a possible sport in the Commonwealth Games; this was then successfully played for the first time at the 2014 Games in Glasgow.

From 1993 to 1996 she was a member of the Sports Council of Great Britain (GB). She was a member of the successor organization UK Sport until 2001 and again from 2014, and of the British National Olympic Committee from 2008 to 2012.

Sarah Springman is also still active as an age group athlete in triathlon and other endurance sports. a. 2010 at the Winter Triathlon European Championships in Oslo and 2011 in Ostersund, in various cross-country races in the Engadin and at the ETH Zurich professor rowing eight.

Others

In 2013 and 2014 she was a member of the board of directors of the Swiss construction company Implenia until she took office as Rector of ETH Zurich .

Awards

• Springman received the award of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997 and the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012 for her services in sport, especially in triathlon.

Sporting successes

Fonts

Selection of publications:

• Editor Constitutive and Centrifuge Modeling: Two Extremes , Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse 2002, ISBN 90-5809-361-1 .
• Editor with Phillips, Arenson Permafrost (Proc. 8th International Conference on Permafrost), Swets and Zeitlinger, Lisse 2003, ISBN 90-5809-582-7 .
• Editor with Laue, Seward Physical Modeling in Geotechnics (Proc. 7th Int. Conference, ICPMG, Zurich), CRC Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-415-59288-8 .
• PW Mayne, MR Coop, Sarah Springman, AB Huang, J. Zornman: State of the Art Paper: GeoMaterial Behavior and Testing. In: Proc. 17. ICSMGE . Volume 4, 2009, Mill Press / IOS Press, Rotterdam, pp. 2777-2872

Journal Papers (selection) with a focus on Soil Structure Interaction

• CWW Ng, SM Springman, ARM Norrish: Centrifuge modeling of Spread-base Integral Bridge Abutments subjected to Cyclic Deformation. In: ASCE JGE. Volume 124, 1998, pp. 376-388.
• MF Bransby, SM Springman: Selection of load-transfer functions for passive lateral loading of pile groups. In: Computers and Geotechnics. Volume 24, No. 3, 1999, pp. 155-184.
• EA Ellis, SM Springman: Full-height piled bridge abutments constructed on soft clay. In: Géotechnique. Volume 51, No. 1, 2001, pp. 3-14.
• M. Berli, B. Kulli, W. Attinger, M. Keller, J. Leuenberger, H. Flühler, SM Springman, R. Schulin: Compaction of agricultural and forest subsoils by tracked heavy construction machinery. In: Soil and Tillage Research. Volume 75, Elsevier BV, 2004, pp. 37-52.
• R. Hufenus, R. Rüegger, K. Weingart, R. Banjac, P. Mayor, SM Springman, R. Brönnimann, G. Feltrin: Full-scale field tests on geosynthetic reinforced unpaved roads on soft subgrade. In: Geotextiles & Geomembranes. Volume 24, No. 1, 2006, pp. 21-37. Best Paper published in Geotextiles & Geomembranes in 2006.
• TM Weber, M. Plötze, J. Laue, G. Peschke, SM Springman: Smear zone identification and soil properties around stone columns constructed in-flight in centrifuge model tests. In: Géotechnique. Volume 60, No. 8, 2010, pp. 197-206.
• J. Najser, E. Pooley, SM Springman, J. Laue, J. Boháč: Mechanisms controlling the behavior of double-porosity clay fills; in situ and centrifuge study. In: Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology QJIGH. Volume 43, No. 2, 2010, pp. 207-220.
• MK Kelesoglu, SM Springman: Analytical and 3D numerical modeling of full-height bridge abutments constructed on pile foundations through soft soils. In: Computers and Geotechnics. Volume 38, No. 8, 2011, pp. 934-948.
• RT Klinkvort, O. Hededal, SM Springman: Scaling issues in centrifuge modeling of monopiles. In: International Journal of Physical Modeling in Geotechnics. Volume 13, No. 2, 2013, pp. 38-49. Awarded the Telford Premium prize for the best paper published in 2013.

Soil Mechanics

• SM Springman, J. Giudici-Trausch, M. Heil, R. Heim: Strength of a soft Swiss lacustrine clay: cone penetration and triaxial data. In: Transportation Research Record. Volume 1675, Transportation Research Board, 1999, pp. 1-9.
• CC Hird, SM Springman: Comparative performance of 5 cm² and 10 cm² piezocones in a lacustrine clay. In: Géotechnique. Volume 56, No. 6, 2006, pp. 427-438.
• B. Imre, S. Räbsamen, SM Springman: A Coefficient of Restitution of Rock Materials. In: Computers & Geosciences. Volume 34, 2008, pp. 339-350. doi: 10.1016 / j.cageo.2007.04.004 .

Centrifuge

• S. Springman, J. Laue, R. Boyle, J. White, A. Zweidler: The ETH Zurich Geotechnical Drum Centrifuge. In: Int. Journal of Physical Modeling in Geotechnics. Volume 1, No. 1, 2001, pp. 59-70.
• J. Garnier, C. Gaudin, SM Springman, PJ Culligan, D. Goodings, D. Konig, B. Kutter, R. Phillips, MF Randolph, L. Thorel: Catalog of Scaling Laws and Similitude Questions in Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling. In: International Journal of Physical Modeling in Geotechnics. Volume 7, No. 3, 2007, pp. 01-23.

Permafrost

• L. Arenson, M. Hoelzle, SM Springman: Borehole deformation measurements and internal structure of some rock glaciers in Switzerland. In: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. Volume 13, No. 2, 2002, pp. 117-135.
• C. Harris, L. Arenson, HH Christiansen, B. Etzelmüller, R. Frauenfelder, S. Gruber, W. Haeberli, C. Hauck, M. Hölzle, O. Humlum, K. Isaksen, A. Kääb, MA Kern- Lütschg, M. Lehning, N. Matsuoka, JB Murton, J. Nötzli, M. Phillips, N. Ross, M. Seppälä, SM Springman, D. Vonder Mühll: Permafrost and climate in Europe: monitoring and modeling thermal, geomorphological and geotechnical responses. In: Earth Science Reviews. Volume 92, No. 3-4, 2009, pp. 117-171.
• SM Springman, LU Arenson, Y. Yamamoto, H. Maurer, A. Kos, T. Buchli1, G. Derungs: Multidisciplinary investigations on three rock glaciers in the Swiss Alps: legacies and future perspectives. In: Geographiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography. Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, 2012, pp. 215–243.
• Y. Yamamoto, SM Springman: Axial compression stress path tests on artificial frozen soil samples in a triaxial device at temperatures just below 0 ° C. In: Canadian Geotechnical Journal. Volume 51, No. 10, 2014, pp. 1178–1195.

Natural hazards

• SM Springman, C. Jommi, P. Teysseire: Instabilities on moraine slopes induced by loss of suction: a case history. In: Géotechnique. Volume 53, No. 1, 2003, pp. 3-10.
• S. Friedel, A. Thielen, SM Springman: Investigation of a slope endangered by rainfall-induced landslides using 3D resistivity tomography and geotechnical testing. In: Journal of Applied Geophysics. Volume 60, No. 2, 2006, pp. 100-114.
• B. Imre, J. Laue, SM Springman: Fractal fragmentation of rocks within sturzstroms: insight derived from physical experiments within the ETH Geotechnical Drum Centrifuge. In: Granular Matter. Volume 12, No. 3, 2010, pp. 267-285.
• ET Bowman, B. Imre, J. Laue, SM Springman: Experimental modeling of debris flow behavior using a geotechnical centrifuge. In: Canadian Geotechnical Journal. Volume 47, No. 7, 2010, pp. 742-762.
• SM Springman, A. Askarinejad, F. Casini, S. Friedel, P. Kienzler, P. Teysseire, A. Thielen: Lessons learned from field tests in some potentially unstable slopes in Switzerland. In: Acta Slovenica Geotechnica. Volume 1, 2012, ISSN  1854-0171 , pp. 5-29.
• SM Springman, A. Thielen, P. Kienzler, S. Friedel: A long-term field study for the investigation of rainfall-induced landslides. In: Géotechnique. Volume 63, 2013, pp. 1177-1193. Awarded the British Geotechnical Association Medal for the best paper published in 2013.
• M. Stähli, M. Sättele, Ch. Huggel, BW McArdell, P. Lehmann, A. Van Herwijnen, A. Berne, M. Schleiss, A. Ferrari, A. Kos, D. Or, SM Springman: Monitoring and prediction in early warning systems for rapid mass movements. In: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. (Open Access), Special Issue, Landslide Prediction & Forecasting, eds. F. Catani, F. Guzzetti, Volume 15, 2015, pp. 905-917.

Web links

• Website at the ETH Zurich ; principal
• Interview as a triathlete 2007
• Biography of Debrett’s ( Memento from January 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
• Sarah Springman's profile and results in the ITU database at Triathlon.org , accessed on June 28, 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Honors from the University of Bern 2015-2016. In: Website of the University of Bern. Retrieved June 28, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Springman, Laue, Boyle, White, Zweidler: The ETH Zurich Geotechnical Drum Centrifuge. In: International Journal of Geotechnical Modeling in Geotechnics. Volume 1, No. 1, 2001, pp. 59-70. doi: 10.1680 / ijpmg.2001.010107
3. ↑ ETH Zurich - Annual Report 2014. Ed .: ETH Zurich, Hochschulkommunikation, April 2015, p. 55. (PDF) Retrieved on July 23, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Competence Center Environment and Sustainability CCES. Archived from the original on July 24, 2015 ; accessed on July 16, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Rendez-vous with the Queen (March 30, 2012)
6. ↑ The Iron Mate GB Triathlon Hall of Fame; 1985-2010