K. R. Saxena graduated in Civil Engineering from Osmania University, India in 1951 and obtained D.I.C. and M.Sc. in Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering from London University in 1968. He started his career at A.P. Engineering Research Laboratories, as Research Assistant in Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Laboratory and rose to the position of Director of the Laboratories. In later part of his career he worked as Director of R&D Schemes of River Valley Projects, Government of India and was the Director of Indian Committees of ISRM and ITA and organized International Conferences and Symposia. He was President of Indian Geotechnical Society and is author of about 75 papers and editor/ author of six books. V.M. Sharma took his B.Tech (Hons) degree in Civil engineering from I.I.T. Kharagpur and Masters degree from Roorkee University in 1968. He obtained his Ph.D. in Rock Mechanics from I.I.T Delhi in 1985. Dr Sharma was the President of the Indian Geotechnical Society and was associated with the organization of the 13th ICSMFE, New Delhi. He is author of over 100 technical papers and books.