Geotechnical Engineering

Gabriel Fernandez

Gabriel
Fernandez

Instructor

2230 Newmark
205 N. Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
gfernand@illinois.edu
Phone: 
(217) 333-6926
A member of the faculty for more than 25 years, Dr. Fernandez holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University de los Andes, Colombia (1970); a master of science degree in Soil and Rock Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1972); and a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from Illinois (1976).
His publications include:
  • Huo, H., Bobet, A., Fernandez, G. and Ramirez, J. “Seismic Evaluation of the Failure of the Daikai Station during the Kobe Earthquake,” Proc., 11th International Congress on Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (ICSDEE) and the 3rd International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (ICEGE), University of California, Berkeley, 2004, Vol. 2, pp. 758-765.
  • Fernandez, G. "Underground Storage in Salt Deposits - Raul Marsal Lecture," 2000, Spec. Publ., Mexican Society of Civil Engineers.
  • Fernandez, G. and E. de A. Gimenes. "Hydromechanical Evaluation of Flow Behavior in a Granitic Rock Foundation: The Albignia Dam Case Study," International Congress of Large Dams, 20th Congress, Beijing, 2000, pp. 1745-1766.
Research Overview: 

Dr. Fernandez' research and consulting is in the area of rock mechanics.  Projects on which he has consulted include the Guavio Dam, a 920-foot high rockfill dam with 15 kilometers of underground power conduits and 2200-foot deep underground powerhouse in Columbia; the Lower Kihansi Project in Tanzania, which featured a concrete dam, water conveyance structures and an underground powerhouse; and the Caracas, La Guaira Highway, Venezuela.

Links of Interest: 

Timothy D. Stark

Timothy D.
Stark

Professor

"Our graduates are exposed to cross-disciplinary topics that prepare them for exciting professional opportunities."

2217 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

205 N. Mathews Ave.

Urbana, IL 61801

tstark@illinois.edu
Phone: 
(217) 333-7394
Fax: 
(217) 333-9464
Research Website

Timothy D. Stark holds a B.S. (University of Delaware 1981), M. Engrg. (University of California, Berkeley 1984), and Ph.D. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute 1987), all in civil engineering. He has been on the faculty of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois since 1991. Dr. Stark was an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at San Diego State University from 1987-1991. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Stark worked for Woodward-Clyde Consultants in San Francisco.  He is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois and participates in consulting projects on a wide variety of projects.

Dr. Stark has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in soil mechanics, foundation engineering, dams and levees, geosynthetics, and waste containment design.

Dr. Stark has received a number of awards for his research and teaching activities including being elected a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2005, the ASTM Standards Development Award from the ASTM (2002), Walter L. Huber Research Prize from ASCE, 1999; University Scholar Award from the University of Illinois, 1998; Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award from the ASCE, 1998; News Correspondent Award, ASCE, 1995; Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award from the American Society for Engineering Education, 1994; Xerox Award for Faculty Research, College of Engineering, University of Illinois, 1993; Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award from the ASCE, 1992; Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement, from the ASCE, 1991; and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Research Fellow, 1987 and 1991.

Research Overview: 

Dr. Stark has research interests in soil liquefaction during earthquakes, static and seismic stability of natural and manmade slopes, design of waste containment facilities, performance of compacted fills, and stabilization and behavior of dredged material containment areas. He has been involved in a number of consulting projects on these topics, which has facilitated the transfer of this technology to practice and his students.

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Scott M. Olson

Scott M.
Olson

Assistant Professor

"My goal is to make geoengineering theory come to life using experience from practice."

2230d Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

205 N. Mathews Ave. Urbana, IL 61801

olsons@illinois.edu
Phone: 
(217) 265-7584
Fax: 
(217) 265-8041
Research Website

Scott M. Olson holds a B.S. (University of Illinois 1993), M.S. (University of Illinois 1995), and Ph.D. (University of Illinois 2001), all in civil engineering. From 1995 through 1997, Scott worked in private practice for Woodward-Clyde Consultants. After completed his Ph.D., Dr. Olson returned to private practice with URS Corporation and also taught geotechnical earthquake engineering courses at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Scott joined the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois in August 2004.

Dr. Olson currently teaches an undergraduate course in geotechnical engineering and a graduate course on insitu testing and field measurements.

Dr. Olson is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the North American Geosynthetics Society. Dr. Olson previously was a member of the governor-appointed Missouri Seismic Safety Commission and currently serves on a review board for the National Highway Cooperative Research Program. Dr. Olson is a licensed professional engineer and continues to participate in consulting projects with industry.

Dr. Olson has received several honors and awards for his research, practice-related, and teaching accomplishments. In 2003, the Canadian Geotechnical Society awarded Scott the R.M. Quigley Award for the best paper in the 2002 Canadian Geotechnical Journal. In 2004, the American Society of Civil Engineers awarded Scott the Arthur Casagrande Award for his work on the residual strength of liquefied soils. The Casagrande Award was established to provide professional development opportunities for outstanding, young (under 35) practitioners, researchers, and teachers of geotechnical engineering. Dr. Olson was the first practicioner to receive this award.

Research Overview: 

Dr. Olson's research interests include: liquefaction of level and sloping ground, paleoseismology and paleoliquefaction, soft ground engineering, in situ testing, geosynthetics, and instrumentation.

Links of Interest: 

Gholamreza Mesri

Gholamreza
Mesri

Ralph B. Peck Professor

2230a Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

205 N. Mathews Ave. Urbana, IL 61801

gmesri@illinois.edu
Phone: 
(217) 333-6934
Fax: 
(217) 333-9464
Research Website

Gholamreza Mesri holds a B.S. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1965), M.S. (UIUC 1966), and Ph.D. (UIUC 1969), all in civil engineering. He has been on the faculty of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since 1969.

Dr. Mesri has taught advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses in Soil Mechanics and Soil Behavior. Dr. Mesri is the co-author with Karl Terzaghi and Ralph B. Peck of the Third Edition of Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, Wiley Interscience.

Dr. Mesri has served as consultant to government and private organizations in relation to construction projects in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, including airports, offshore facilities, tunnels, hydroelectric developments and building foundations. He is a member of the International Commission on Restoration of Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City, and a member of the International Commission on Swelling Rocks, and International Committee on Coastal Geotechnical Engineering, and International Committee on Foundation Engineering in Difficult Soil Conditions.

Dr. Mesri is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. He is the recipient of the 1988 Norman Medal and 1992 Middlebrook Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Research Overview: 

Dr. Mesri's current fields of active research include engineering properties, construction problems, and ground modification technology in soft clays and silts, stiff clays and soft rocks, as well as granular materials.

Links of Interest: 

James H. Long

James H.
Long

Associate Professor

"Never trust results from one source. Supplement with additional analyses, bounds, precedent, and common sense. Think!"

2230d Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

205 N. Mathews Ave. Urbana, IL 61801

jhlong@illinois.edu
Phone: 
(217) 333-2543
Fax: 
(217) 333-9464
Research Website

James H. Long holds a B.S. (1976), M.S. (1981), and Ph.D. (1984), all in civil engineering at the University of Texas in Austin. He has been on the faculty of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois since 1985. He is the Director of the Harry J. Schnabel Jr. Large Soil Model Test Laboratory.

Dr. Long has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in geotechnical engineering. The undergraduate courses he has taught include Introductory Soil Mechanics, and Geotechnical Engineering. Graduate level classes taught include Applied Soil Mechanics, Behavior of Deep Foundations, Earth Pressures and Retaining Structures, and Geosynthetics and Mechanically Stabilized Earth. He also teaches classes on driven piling and drilled shafts that are offered nationwide by ASCE and FHWA.

Dr. Long is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the GeoInstitute, the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, the Deep Foundations Institute, the Pile Driving Contractors Association, the Association of Drilled Shaft Contractors. He serves on the Technical committee TC 23 on Limit State Design in Geotechnical Engineering Practice for the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. He also serves on the committee for developing Driven Pile Installation Specifications for the Pile Driving Contractors Association. He has also served as on other committees for American Society of Civil Engineering and for the Transportation Research Board.

Research Overview: 

Dr. Long has research interests focused on soil-structure interaction such as behavior of axially and laterally loaded foundations, use of load test database for reliability-based design, earthquake engineering, mechanically stabilized earth and earth support systems, and ground improvement methods and their effect on structures. He is actively involved in conducting both field and model-scale tests for foundations and excavations.

Links of Interest: 

Youssef Hashash

Youssef
Hashash

Professor
John Burkitt Webb Endowed Faculty Scholar

"A key ingredient of our research and education is the strong linkage between theory and practice."

2230c Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

205 N. Mathews Ave. Urbana, IL 61801

hashash@illinois.edu
Phone: 
(217) 333-6986
Fax: 
(217) 333-9464
Research Website

Youssef Hashash holds a B.S. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1987), M.S. (MIT, 1988), and Ph.D. (MIT, 1992), all in civil engineering. He has been on the faculty of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois since 1998. Dr. Hashash worked as a Staff Engineer for the PB/MK TEAM in Dallas, Texas on the Superconducting Super Collider Project construction. In 1994 he joined the Geotechnical and Underground Engineering group at Parsons Brickerhoff in San Francisco, California, and was involved in many tunnel and deep excavation projects around the US and Canada.

Dr. Hashash has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in geotechnical engineering, numerical modeling in geomechanics and geotechnical earthquake engineering.

Dr. Hashash is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the American underground Association and the International Tunneling Association. He also serves on Earth Retaining Structures Committee of the Geo-Institute of ASCE, and Performance of Structures during construction of SEI.

In 2002 Dr. Hashash was named a Beckman Fellow at the Center fo Advanced Studies at the University of Illinois. He is a 2001-2003 American Bridge Faculty scholar (UIUC). In 2000 Dr. Hashash was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and the Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award from the Geo-Institute of ASCE. In 1999 he was a Notional Center for Supercomputing Application Fellow (UIUC). He received the James Crose Medal (ASCE, 1994) and Thomas Middlebrooks Awards (ASCE, 1997) for journal publications.

Research Overview: 

Dr. Hashash research interests include Deep Excavations, Earthquake Engineering, Numerical Modeling, and Soil-Structure Interaction. He is also involved in use of visualization and virtual reality techniques in geotechnical engineering applications.

Links of Interest: 
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