|
Items in cart [4] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 246
OCR for page 247
HARRY BOLTON SEED
1922-1989
BY JAMES K. MITCHELL
MARRY BOLTON SEED was born in Bolton, England, on August
19, 1922. He studiecI at King's College, London University,
receiving the B.Sc. in civil engineering in 1944 and the Ph.D. in
structural engineering in 1947. Following two years as assistant
lecturer at King's, he came to the Uniter! States to study soil
mechanics at Harvard University under the tutelage of Karl
Terzaghi and Arthur Casagrande. He received the S.M. from
Harvard in 1948 and spent the next year as an instructor. This
was follower! by a year as a foundation engineer for Thomas
Worcester, Incorporated, in Boston.
In 1950 Professor Seedjoined the civil engineering faculty at
the University of California, where he spent the remainder of his
career as an engineering educator, researcher in geotechnical
engineering, and consultant to numerous companies and gov-
ernment agencies. He built the program in geotechnical engi-
neering at Berkeley into one of the largest and best in the worlcl.
A major factor in this development was his bringing colleagues
together from different areas of geotechnical engineering, in-
cluding geological engineering and rock mechanics, as well as
soil mechanics and foundation engineering. He served as chair-
man of the Civil Engineering Department from 1965 to 1971, a
period duringwhich it rose to number one ranking in the United
States for the quality of its graduate programs.
Professor Seed had an enormous impact on every area of
.~ - - .~ ~
247
OCR for page 248
248
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
research activity in which he worked. His early work on the
mechanics of pile foundations still forms the basis of modern
methods of pile-soil interaction. His research on soil compaction
and the influences of methods of compaction on soil structure
and mechanical properties provides the foundation for current
unclerstanding. His contributions to analytical methods of pave-
ment design were of the first rank.
About 1960 he introduced the field of geotechnical earth-
quake engineering, and he is recognized worldwide as the
"father" of this field. His pioneering studies includecl the devel-
opment of methods for site response analysis, for the analysis of
soil-structure interaction, for seismicity evaluation, and for as-
sessment of liquefaction potential. The results of his research
have led to a total revision of concepts and methods for earth-
quake-resistant design of earth dams, nuclear power plants,
coastal facilities, and building foundations, as well as revision of
codes of practice, design procedures, and regulations. This
work, founded on sound scientific principles, has been adopted
throughout the world. He served as a consultant on projects all
over the world and to virtually every major federal agency and
large engineering organization in the United States.
Through his research Professor Seed developed design meth-
ocis that revolutionized many aspects of engineering practice
and thinking. They have had enormous influence on the safety
of critical structures such as major dams, nuclear power plants,
and high-rise buildings. His investigations of major disasters,
such as the 1964 Great Alaska earthquake, the 1971 San Fernan-
clo earthquake in California, the 1976 failure of the Teton Dam,
the 1979 slide at the Port of Nice in France, and the 1985 Mexico
City earthquake, have, with the aid of modern methyls of
analysis and experimental techniques, led to a basic understand-
ing of their causes en cl to the measures that must be taken to
prevent similar occurrences in the future. His selection by the
government of Egypt, underAID sponsorship, to make a seismic
safety evaluation of the Aswan High Dam placed the safety of
literally millions of people in his hancls. His work in all these
areas will have an impact on the world for generations to come.
Harry Seecl's work as an engineering educator, scholar, and
OCR for page 249
HARRY BOLTON SEED
249
servant of his profession was unsurpassed. He was the epitome of
a mode] scholar, devoted to the advancement of engineering
science and practice. He devoted large amounts of time to public
service activities. He was always brilliant as a public speaker and
was recognized for years as the best lecturer and teacher in his
department. He guided fifty Ph.D. candiciates to the successful
completion of their dissertation research; many of them have
gone on to distinguished careers of their own in the geotechni-
cal engineering field. His writings nearly three hundred pa-
pers and reports are exceptionally lucid and insightful and
provide eloquent testimony, as well as a lasting record of his
work. He was active, maintaining a full schedule of teaching,
research, and professional activity until very shortly before his
death.
Professor Seer! recieved many awards and honors for his
contributions. Among them are more awards from the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) than any other engineer in the
history of the society. These include the Norman Medal twice,
the ]. James Croes Medal three times, the Thomas A. Middle-
brooks Award four times, the Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize, the
Arthur M. Wellington Prize, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineer-
ing Research Prize, and the Karl Terzaghi Award. For his excel-
lence as an educator he received the Distinguished Teaching
Award from the University of California and the Vincent Bendix
Awarcl and the Lamme Awarc! from the American Society for
Engineering Education.
Other awards include election as fellow of King's College,
London University; the T. K. Hsich Award of the British Royal
Society and Institution of Civil Engineers, Great Britain; the
Distinguished Engineering Achievement Award of the Institute
for the Advancement of Engineering; and the first Kevin Nash
GoIcI Medal of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering.
He was selected as Faculty Research Lecturer at the University
of California in 1986, the highest honor that the faculty can
bestow on one of its own. Other distinguished lectureships
awarded to Professor Seed include the Horace A. McCrary
Lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Karl
OCR for page 250
250
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Terzaghi Lecture of the American Society of Civil Engineers; the
Henry M. Shaw Lecture at North Carolina State University;
Terzaghi Memorial Lecturer at Bogazici University, Turkey; the
Rankine Lecture of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great
Britain; Northern Testing Services Distinguished Lecturer; Mar-
tin S. Kapp Memorial Lecturer of the ASCE; lames H. Haley
Memorial Lecturer, Boston Society of Civil Engineers; Distin-
guished Civil Engineering Lecturer, University ofNevacla; Charles
Schwab Memorial Lecturer, American Iron and Steel Institute;
ant! the Nabor Carrillo Lecturer, Mexican Society for Soil Me-
chanics.
Dr. Seed was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engi-
neering in 1970, to honorary membership in the American
Society of Civil Engineers in 1985, to the U.S. National Academy
of Sciences in l9S6, and to honorary membership in the Earth-
quake Engineering Research Institute in 1988. In 1987 he was
awarded the National Medal of Science by President Reagan,
and in 1988 he was awarded the first honorary doctorate present-
ed by the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees in Paris.
Dr. Harry Bolton Seed was truly a giant of his generation, and
all of us are the richer for having had him among us. For those
who knew him well, he will be most remembered as a generous
and compassionate gentleman, with wit, incisive insights, and
wide-ranging interest in the world around him. No problem was
too small to be analyzed and solved; every person was given his
time and consideration. He was truly a teacher in the highest
sense of the word.
OCR for page 251
Representative terms from entire chapter:
memorial lecturer
