Kenneth Stokoe Named ASCE Distinguished Member
Kenneth Stokoe, a professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, has been elected to the Class of 2016 ASCE Distinguished Members.
He is recognized for his world-renowned contributions to the understanding of soil dynamics in geotechnical engineering.
Distinguished Membership is the highest honor ASCE can bestow. It is reserved for civil engineers who have attained eminence in some branch of engineering or in related arts and sciences, including the fields of engineering education and construction.
Engineers worldwide now use the resonant column apparatus Stokoe developed to assess soil properties. He also adopted and developed cross-hole seismic methods for measurement of in situ wave velocities in soil and rock that won worldwide acceptance. In addition, he developed the spectral-analysis-of-surface-waves method for geotechnical and earthquake engineering applications, now widely used around the world.
Stokoe was an early advocate of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation program at the National Science Foundation, and his team at the University of Texas at Austin has developed a world-class, large-scale, mobile field capability for nonintrusive and nondestructive characterization of the ground. He was the first to measure modulus degradation of soil in situ using the large NEES Center shakers.
As an educator he has mentored many graduate and doctorate students and has played a key role in elevating the geotechnical engineering program at the University of Texas at Austin.
The 2016 class of Distinguished Members will receive their honors at the ASCE 2016 Convention, Sept. 28 through Oct. 1, in Portland, OR.