Professor Kalman Kovári Retires as Co-Editor of Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering

Excerpt

Professor Kovári had already expressed his wish to retire as Co-Editor in discussions with Giovanni Barla last year but then stayed on to help bridge the transition in the editorial leadership. Now that the new editorship is in place, he decided to permanently step down. Professor Kovári became the “Editor” effectively the “Editor in chief” in 1982. Up to this point in time the journal had evolved from a journal mostly for Austrian professionals to the official journal of the International Society for Rock Mechanics. This history is reflected in the names of the journal: Geologie und Bauwesen 1929–1962, Rock Mechanics and Engineering Geology–Felsmechanik und Ingenieurgeologie 1963–1969, Rock Mechanics–Felsmechanik–Méchanique des Roches 1969–1982. When Professor Kovári took over he changed the name to “Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering”. This was done to emphasize the importance of practice. This name change was reflected well by the composition of the new Editorial board and the acquisition and selection of papers. Clearly, this was helped by the fact that Professor Kovári combined his broad research activities with work in the international rock engineering praxis. Later on ISRM similarly changed its name with the inclusion of “engineering”. …