LAUSR

This special issue contains papers based on contributions submitted to the 54th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium. Although the 2020 symposium, originally scheduled to be held in Golden, CO, was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the symposium proceedings were published as a compilation of over 400 papers. The technical reviews conducted as part of the regular symposium process were used to identify outstanding papers for invitation to submit to this Special Issue. Invited authors expanded their original conference papers prior to submission to Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. Additional peer-review and revision according to the standard Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering editorial process has ensured that the contributions are of the highest possible quality. The 30 papers included in this Special Issue reflect the diversity and breadth of knowledge of ARMA’s membership and symposium attendees. Approximately half of the papers cover topics directly relevant to Civil, Mining, and Petroleum applications, with the remainder being more fundamental or interdisciplinary in nature. The papers cover a number of different thematic areas: