Ralph Brazelton Peck

Ralph Brazelton Peck ( born June 23, 1912 in Winnipeg, Manitoba; † 18 February 2008) was a Canadian- American civil engineer, soil mechanics and geotechnical engineers. He was in his obituary in The Times as the " godfather of soil mechanics " ( " Godfather of soil mechanics " ) called after Karl von Terzaghi was known as the "father of soil mechanics ."

Peck was born in Canada and moved at the age of six with his parents OK Peck and Ethel in the United States. He studied civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where in 1934 he graduated. Then he was given a three -year scholarship. In 1937, he married Marjorie Truby and graduated in the same year. He worked briefly for the American Bridge Company, then 1939-42 at the Chicago metro, with his temporarily close cooperation with Terzaghi started. Most of the time, 32 years, he spent as a professor at the University of Illinois, where he retired in 1974.

Professionally, he was influenced by Terzaghi. He was involved in around 1045 start-up projects as a consultant. Among them were Erzspeicher, tunnels, dams, dikes, the Cannelton -and- Uniontown - lock, dam construction failure cases on the Ohio River, the James Bay hydroelectric project in Quebec, subways in Washington and San Francisco, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Trans-Alaska pipeline, dykes at the Dead Sea, and the Rio - Antirrio bridge across the Gulf of Corinth.

He wrote 200 papers, was 1969-1973 President of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering and has received numerous honors, including:

He received the awarded by the President of the United States National Medal of Science for his scientific findings in geotechnical engineering, especially for the combination of contributions from geology and soil mechanics with the practical art of foundation design.

The Ralph B. Peck Award from the ASCE is named after him - he will be awarded for the publication of outstanding case studies.