George F. Sowers
George F. Sowers (born September 23, 1921 in Cleveland (Ohio) , † October 23, 1996 ) was an American civil engineer specializing in geotechnical engineering .
Life
Sowers studied civil engineering at the Case Institute of Technology (Bachelor's degree in 1942) and worked part-time from 1939 to 1942 in the engineering office for port construction of his father George B. Sowers in Cleveland. He then studied hydraulic engineering at the University of Tennessee and was a hydraulic engineer with the Tennessee Valley Authority from 1942 to 1944. During the Second World War, he was a teacher (instructor) in the US Navy (for electronics) from 1944 to 1946. After the war he continued his studies at Harvard University with Karl von Terzaghi and Arthur Casagrande , where he obtained his master’s degree in 1947. In the same year he went to Georgia Tech , where he was Associate Professor in 1950 and Professor of Civil Engineering in 1954, from 1965 as Regents Professor . From 1987 he was Professor Emeritus. In addition to his university activities, he was also a consulting engineer in the engineering company Law Engineering Companies from 1947, which he remained until his death. There he was Vice President in 1955 and Chairman of the Supervisory Board in 1971.
Sowers is the author of a textbook on soil mechanics known in the USA, which he initially wrote with his father. Among other things, he dealt with foundations in karst , weathered soils, soil mechanics in road construction, foundations on landfills, geosynthetics, damage in the foundation and with dam construction. In 1964 he taught for several months in New Delhi and in 1959 was a consultant for dam projects in India.
In 1995 he received the Terzaghi Award , twice received the Middlebrooks Award of the ASCE and in 1979 he gave the Terzaghi Lecture . In 1973, he was named Georgia Engineer of the Year. In 1976 he received the Herschel Prize from the Boston Society of Civil Engineers and in 1990 the Brooks Award. In 1994 he became a member of the National Academy of Engineering . He was an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
He was a member of the US Committee for Large Dams, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Geotechnical Engineering Division of ASCE, Vice President of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (ISSMFE) for North America, and President of the Georgia Section of ASCE.
Fonts
- Introductory Soil Mechanics and Foundations: Geotechnical Engineering , New York, Macmillan 1951, 4th edition, MacMillan 1979 (in the first editions with George B. Sowers, also translated into Spanish and Chinese)
- with Alfonso Rico Rodriguez, Hermillo del Castillo: Soil Mechanics in Highway Engineering , Trans Tech Publishers, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, 1988 (originally Spanish)
- Building on Sinkholes: Design and Construction of Foundations in Karst Terrain , ASCE 1996
- Earth and Rockfill Dam Engineering , Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1961
- Earth dam failures in the United States: Mechanisms of failure and their consequences , Mitteilungen des Institut für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft, Issue 18, Aachen, 1977
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sowers, George F. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American civil engineer specializing in geotechnical engineering |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 23, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cleveland , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 23, 1996 |