CASAGRANDE

AUSTRIA (see also List of Individuals)

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28.8.1902 Heidenschaft/A - 6.9.1981 Belmont MA/USA

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Arthur Casagrande collaborated after graduation from the Technical University of Vienna for one year with Friedrich Schaffernak (1881-1951). In 1926 he emigrated to the USA to become an assistant of Karl Terzaghi (1883-1963). After a short return to Austria, he developed a triaxial compression cell to study volume changes during shear, and also initiated consolidation tests with undisturbed clay samples. Casagrande moved to Harvard University as an assistant professor in 1934, associate professor in 1940 and in 1946 Gordon McKay professor of soil mechanics and foundation engineering, a position that he held until retirement in 1969. His research activities covered almost every aspect of geotechnics, and thus partly also of groundwater flow. As a consultant, he was engaged internationally with a particular combination of scientific insight, originality and engineering commonsense. He concentrated particularly on earth and rockfill dams.

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Casagrande conceived and organized the first International Conference of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, and he may thus be considered the founder of its International Society ISSMFE. He was its president from 1961 to 1965. He was also a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union AGU. In 1983 ASCE established the Casagrande Lecture for eminent engineers with longstanding achievements in practice, teaching or research in geotechnical engineering.

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_{Anonymous (1950). Arthur Casagrande wins Wellington Prize. Civil Engineering 20(1): 41. P}

_{Anonymous (1965). Arthur Casagrande elected to honorary membership. Civil Engineering}

_{35(10): 90-91. P}

_{Anonymous (1981). Arthur Casagrande, a founding father of modern soil mechanics, dead at}

_{79. Civil Engineering 51(11): 80. P}

_{Anonymous (1981). Prof. Arthur Casagrande. Géotechnique 31: 585.}

_{Anonymous (1984). Fund and lecture established in memory of Casagrande. Civil Engineering}

_{54(6): 70. P}

_{Casagrande, A. (1948). Classification and identification of soils. Trans. ASCE 113: 901-991. Casagrande, A. (1973). Embankment dam engineering. Wiley: New York.}

_{Skempton, A.W. (1961). Introduction to Rankine Lecture 1961. Géotechnique 11: 159-160. P}

_{Wilson, S.D., Seed, H.B., Peck, R.B. (1982). Arthur Casagrande - A tribute. Géotechnique 32: 87-94.}