Prof. Yossi Hatzor of the Department of Geological Environmental Sciences and the incumbent of the Dr. Sam and Edna Lemkin Chair in Rock Mechanics was recently appointed as a visiting professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for 2012-2013. Visiting professors are selected from outstanding researchers from around the world in all areas of science. In the field of rock mechanics, Hatzor’s speciality, there has been only one previous researcher, Prof. John Hudson from Imperial College London.
Prof. Hatzor’s research group studies environmental effects such as climatic changes and seismic activity on the performance of structures in rock, such as deep underground excavations, rock slopes, and historic monuments embedded in rock masses. Hatzor studies the mechanical behaviour of intact rock samples as well as rock-discontinuities in a state of the art laboratory, the Deichmann Rock Mechanics Laboratory, and models the response of rock masses to environmental changes, using advanced numerical modelling techniques, with a special emphasis on earthquake engineering.
Hatzor has served as geological engineering consultant , through BGU, for major national conservation projects in rock, such as stabilization of the rock cliffs of the World Heritage site Masada against the effects of earthquakes, the study of stability of underground archaeological sites such as the Bell-shaped Caverns at Bet Guvrin and Zedekiah's Cave (Solomon’s Quarries) in Jerusalem and the preservation of Ayalon cave which was discovered underneath the active open pit mine of Nesher Cement Industries at Ramleh.
Prof. Hatzor was elected as President of the Israel Geological Society in 2005, founded Israel Rock Mechanics Association under the auspices of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM), serves as Chairman of an international working group on discontinuous deformation analysis research (ISRM Commission on DDA), and is a member of the Editorial board of the two leading international journals in rock mechanics; the International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, and Rock Mechanics & Rock Engineering.
