Ripley, Charles F.,

Karl Terzaghi (1883-1963) was considered the "father of Soil Mechanics" now known as Geotechnical Engineering. A native of Prague, Terzaghi graduated from the Technical University of Graz and then worked as a geologist in the field of civil engineering. Following World War I he carried out a program of research into the properties of soils that lead to the publication in 1925 of his famous book, Erdbaumechanik which presented the first co-ordinated picture of soils as engineering materials. This work was done while he was on the staffs of the Imperial School of Engineers and then of Robert College, both in Istanbul, Turkey. He was appointed a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925 but four years later returned to a specially created professorship at the Technical University of Vienna. In 1938 Terzaghi returned to the United States accepting a position at Harvard University from which he retired in 1955. His pioneer work was publicly recognized when the first International Conference on Soil Mechanics was held at Harvard University in 1936. He lived to see soil mechanics well established throughout the world, in the practice of civil engineering and in the curricula of almost all schools of civil engineering. More than just a theorist, Terzaghi was also a consulting engineer of international reputation and with a world-wide practice. Terzaghi served as consultant on a number of significant projects in British Columbia including the Mission Dam that was renamed the Terzaghi Dam in his honour in 1965.