Cazzuffi elected chairman of standardization committee

Daniele Cazzuffi has been elected to a three-year term as chairman of the European Committee for Standardization on Geosynthetics (CEN TC 189).

The vote in January 2012 for terms 2012–2014 included all standardization bodies of the 27 countries belonging to CEN.

The CEN Technical Committee 189 was founded in 1989 and since then all of its chairs have been from Belgium or the Netherlands. Committee 189 is organized in six working groups and Cazzuffi was the convener of WG 3, which is devoted to the development of methods for mechanical tests.

The mandate of CEN TC 189 is to develop standardized test methods for the overall characterization of geosynthetics and to elaborate the harmonized European standards for the various fields of geosynthetics applications (landfills, contaminated sites, dams and reservoirs, canals and waterways, tunnels and underground structures, road and railways infrastructures, landslide stabilization, drainage systems, and erosion control). These European standards are than accepted as national standards in all countries belonging to CEN.

Cazzuffi, Geosynthetics and Environmental Geotechnics group at CESI SpA in Milano, Italy, is also past president of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee for Geosynthetics magazine.

The first European meeting with Dr. Cazzuffi as CEN TC 189 chair is at UNI in Milano May 24–25, 2012.