Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) announces that 2 of its 18 Technical Committees have new committee chairs starting in 2016.
Morgan NeSmith, P.E., of Berkel & Company Contractors, is the incoming chair of the Augered Cast-in-Place Pile Committee, following Mike Moran of Cajun Deep Foundations. NeSmith is a long-standing member of the committee and the chief geotechnical engineer for Berkel & Company Contractors. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from Georgia Tech and over 15 years of experience in geotechnical contracting and consulting. His experience includes seven years on numerous site characterization and construction projects for remote and offshore facilities in the Middle East, Western Africa and Asia. Since 2004, he has specialized in the design and installation of cast-in-place piles and ground improvement systems; including data acquisition-based design and quality assurance for auger pressure grouted (APG) and displacement (APG-D) piles. He has authored or co-authored a number of papers on the design and performance of APG and APG-D piles.
Tanner Blackburn, Ph.D., P.E., of Hayward Baker, is the new chair of the Ground Improvement Committee, following Marty Taube, P.E., P.G., of Menard. Blackburn is chief engineer in the central engineering group of Hayward Baker. He has been the designer of record and project manager for several ground improvement projects, including vibro-replacement, aggregate piers, compaction grouting, jet grouting, rigid inclusions and deep soil mixing projects. Blackburn earned a B.A. in physics from Middlebury College in Vermont and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from Northwestern University in Illinois. He is also an active member of the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (GI-ASCE) serving on technical committees at the national level.
