Josef-Michael Schramm – founder of the Working Group “Wehrgeologie” of the Austrian Geological Society. Contribution to the history of this working group
- Autor(en)
- Hermann Häusler
- Abstrakt
Born in 1949 in Salzburg, Josef-Michael Schramm (JMS) first studied geography at the University of Salzburg and continued studies in geology/palaeontology as well as mineral-ogy/petrology at Innsbruck University, where he received his “Doctor philosophiae” degree in geology in 1974. From 1974 until 1975 he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at Salzburg University, returning there in 1976 after post-graduate studies at Bern University, Switzerland. Since 1982, JMS has been a Professor of Geology at Salzburg, finally heading its Geology Division until he retired in 2012. JMS started his academic career with research projects on diagenesis and low temperature metamorphism of the Austroalpine units based on measurements of illite crystallinity, the results of which are not discussed here. This paper, on JMS as a military geologist, refers predominantly to achievements relevant to his applied geological projects and his military geological career. As a consultant for engineering geology as well as a sworn and court-certified expert, he accumulated considerable experience on the foundation of power plants, highway construction, tunnelling, and on landslides, studies which were published in numerous articles. In the early 1980s he contributed to the application of the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) for poor rock, a concept for which in 1981 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Indian Geotechnical Society.
During 1990-1993, Josef-Michael Schramm was principal investigator for an interdisciplinary project concerning investigations the giant landslide area at Langtang in central Nepal. From 1993-1996 JMS was principal investigator of another project of the Austrian Science Founda-tion Fund (Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung – FWF) on the geology of selected mass movements in the Nepal Himalayas, and in Sikkim/India introduced a GIS-based hazard mapping index of potential mass movements, and analysed the kinematics of a rock fall near Salzburg. More recently, JMS began compiling a book on engineering geology of the Federal State of Salzburg. In total Josef-Michael Schramm published about 200 papers, about 50 of which deal with military geology, and he wrote about 600 reports, expert assessments and studies, which have not been published. At his department at Salzburg University JMS supervised about 90 theses of bachelor-, diploma-, master, and doctoral students.
JMS has been and is a member of several professional associations, notably the Austrian Geo-logical Society, the Austrian Society of Geomechanics, the German Geotechnical Association, the International Society for Rock Mechanics, the International Association of Engineering Geol-ogy, and the Study Group on Very Low Metamorphic Rocks SG-A (Subcommission on the Systematics of Metamorphic Rocks, International Union of Geological Sciences). He has been active contributing, and still contributes, to working groups of the Austrian Geological Society, namely the Working Group Engineering Geology, the Working Group History of Earth Sciences, and the Working Group „Wehrgeologie“. Several important decorations were awarded to Josef-Michael Schramm, notably in 1975 the Promotion Award of the Federal State of Salzburg for his doctoral thesis; in 1981 the Gold Medal Award of the Indian Geotechnical Society for his contribution: „The New Austrian Tunnelling Method, a special conception and its application in poor rock“; in 2007 the Decoration of Honour in Gold for services to the Republic of Austria; in 2009 the Decoration for Art and Science of the Austrian Albert Schweitzer Society; and in 2013 the Grand Decoration of Merit of the Federal State of Salzburg.- Organisation(en)
- Journal
- Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences
- Band
- 107
- Seiten
- 182-190
- ISSN
- 0251-7493
- Publikationsdatum
- 2014
- Peer-reviewed
- Ja
- ÖFOS 2012
- 105110 Geschichte der Geologie
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f7a06332-3778-4dc3-9248-a610a8aebd68