These two volumes present the proceedings of the Skempton Conference, March 2004, organised by the British Geotechnical Association (BGA), the Geologocal Society of London and the Institution of Cixil Engineers (ICE). Bearing in mind the conference's commemorative theme, the first volume reprints the Royal Society of London's short biographical memoir on Professor Sir Alec Skempton and offers a set of invited articles that reflect on his contributions to engineering geology, slope stability and the history of civil engineering. Following on from these short introductory commemorative sections, the main body of the first volume is taken up by five major keynote papers written by a team of internetional experts that survey the enormous advances that have taken place in geotechnical engineering since Skempton's pioneering early work and papers from the first session. The second volume contains more than 80 articles that report research and advances in practice from around the world. The papers focus on the broad range of geotechnical issues that most interested 'Skem' and are grouped under the headingsof: Soil behaviour, characterisation and modeling; Foundations; Slopes and embankments; Ground performance; The influence of geology on civil engineering.