The Symposium provided an opportunity to enhance the scientific debate on the construction of mathematical models for the description of the physical behaviour of soils, as well as on the suggestions provided by the micro-mechanical observation of the matter. The focus was on the comparison between the appropriateness of models and the need of mathematics to obtain rigorous results, which involves know-how from applied mathematical physics, geotechnical engineering and mechanics of solids.
The contributions were selected by the Editors and the other Members of the Scientific Committee of the Symposium: Gianfranco Capriz (Pisa, Roma), Claudio di Prisco (Milan), Wolfgang Ehlers (Stuttgart), James T. Jenkins (Cornell), Stefan Luding (Twente), David Muir Wood (Dundee), Kenichi Soga (Berkeley).