"The 17th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering convened on 5-9 October, 2009, at the international award-winning Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt to explore the conference's main theme: 'The Academia and Practice of Geotechnical Engineering.' Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of these proceedings contain the accepted papers addressing these five topics: 1) Material Behavior and Testing 2) Analysis and Design 3) Prediction, Monitoring and Evaluation of Performance 4) Construction Process 5) Management, Training and Education. Volume 4 of the proceedings contains the state-of-the-art lectures on the five topics, as well as the Terzaghi Oration, Heritage Lecture, Great Project Lecture, and 16 general reports that present an overview of the accepted papers for each of the 15 technical sessions. Post-conference volume 5 will include the Practitioners/Academia Forum and a summary of the 4th International Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference."--Publisher's description.