It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Prof. Dr. Patrick Selvadurai, Advisory Board Member of Geosciences, in July 2023.

He was a highly distinguished and respected colleague, teacher, scholar, and engineer, internationally recognized for his work. Prof. Dr. Selvadurai was a world leader in continuum mechanics, theoretical, computational, and experimental geomechanics and applied mathematics.

Prof. Dr. Selvadurai obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1971 from the University of Nottingham in theoretical mechanics. He joined the Civil Engineering department at Carleton University in 1975 as an assistant professor and became a full professor in 1981. In 1986, the University of Nottingham awarded him its first-ever research D.Sc. in theoretical mechanics. After serving as the department chair for nearly a decade, Professor Selvadurai was invited to serve as the Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics at McGill University, which he accepted and served between 1993 and 1997.

He had Visiting Professorships at numerous universities around the world, including the University of Nottingham, UK; Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France; University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, etc.

Prof. Dr. Selvadurai received the Humboldt Senior Scientist Award (Germany), the Killam Research Fellowship (Canada Council for the Arts), the Inaugural John Booker Medal (International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics), the prestigious Max Planck Research Prize in the Engineering Sciences (Max Planck Gesellschaft, Germany), and many other others.

His death is a significant loss to the academic community as well as everyone close to him. We offer our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.