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there on, everything becomes possible: to use realistic constitutive laws, outside of
elasticity or perfect plasticity, to work in 3D without having to consider one
dimension, huge for beams or small for plates, in order to be able to obtain
analytical solutions.
Biarez made the “three-column” approach fertile for constitutive laws and testing
methods, both in the laboratory and in situ , for computation methods and
constructions, through careful observation and pertinent analysis. When the
complexity of this approach led to unsolvable experimental or numerical difficulties,
he introduced correlations, but these short-cuts were lucidly taken and with a
concern for the return to observations to avoid unjustified, even dangerous,
extrapolations.
His collaborators and students, thanks to the “three columns”, knew where the
“stone” they were adding to the edifice of the scientific advancement of soil
mechanics would eventually find its place.
What we also remember is that this deep, inquisitive mind and omnivorous
interest moved in the direction of all subjects: from grain mechanics to bone
mechanics, from pharmacy to surgery, and to the events of his day. His desire to
help the developing world was brought about by his contact with colleagues and
students from those countries. He offered his professional experience to Algeria in
expertising dams and railways. He sent a great number of his students there as
coopérants , i.e. young men who could replace military service by civil service who,
incidentally, ended up wrecking a few Renault 4Ls in the Sahara Desert! Let us
mention Pierre Mouroux, who was received by Mohamed Ben Blidia, at that time
the president of the Institut méditerranéen de l'eau.
Biarez was committed to receiving students from Africa and the Middle East,
among them Michel Al Issa, director of the civil engineering department at the
University of Damas, Alphone Gueï, assistant director of the INP in Yamoussoukro,
Kawkab Habib Selman, professor of construction in Baghdad, and Abdelmalek
Bekkouche, who has recently been appointed as president of a new university in Aïn
Temouchent, Algeria. Biarez once attempted to set up a school of construction in
Africa.
Given all his activities and contacts, we believe that he had a concern for justice
and that he cared for other people's wellbeing, both politically and personally,
although he rarely expressed his opinions. If a particular student was in trouble with
the authorities or had financial or psychological difficulties, he readily came to his
or her aid with a sense of extreme discretion, which some people might have
misinterpreted as being aloof or distant. In reality, Biarez was both imposing − with
a physical stature to match − and extremely reserved, even possibly shy. His
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