Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee, this is a report on the current progress of the 5^th International Symposium on Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials (IS-Seoul 2011). As hosted by the Korean Geotechnical Society (KGS) and sponsored by the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE; TC 101), the IS-Seoul 2011 will be held from August 31^st to September 3^rd, 2011, in Seoul, Korea.

To date (July 4^th, 2011), almost 200 full-technical papers (including 17 Soils and Foundations journal special edition papers) have been submitted, and 250 participants from all over the world completed their early registration for the IS-Seoul 2011. I am sure that the IS-Seoul 2011 will be an ideal place to exchange and share ideas, advanced knowledge, and future visions on geotechnical engineering. Moreover, the 1^st Bishop lecture and six keynote lectures will be provided during the symposium. The invited lecturers and their novel topics are listed in the following table. For details, please visit our official website (http://www.isseoul2011.org/).

According to several requests, we decided to extend the due date for early-bird registration from June 30^th to July 15^th, 2011. Registration and hotel information are available online through the symposium website. If you have any question or request, please give a contact to us (is-seoul@kaist.ac.kr).

Thank you very much for your kind attention and contribution to IS-Seoul 2011. We are looking forward to having you here in this summer.

Best regards,

Dong-Soo Kim

General Secretary of IS-Seoul 2011

Professor at KAIST

Tel.: +82-42-350-3619

Fax: +82-42-350-7200

E-mail: is-seoul@kaist.ac.kr