Sir Alec Westley Skempton was an English civil engineer internationally recognised, along with Karl Terzaghi, as one of the founding fathers of the engineering discipline of soil mechanics.
17 Facts About Alec Skempton
1.
2.
Alec Skempton established the soil mechanics course at Imperial College London, where the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department's building was renamed after him in 2004, and was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to engineering.
3.
Alec Skempton was a notable contributor on the history of British civil engineering.
4.
In 1932 Alec Skempton he went to the City and Guilds College in London to study civil engineering.
5.
In 1945, Skempton was seconded from BRS to establish a soil mechanics course at Imperial College, becoming a full-time lecturer there in 1946, and introducing, in 1950, the first postgraduate course in soil mechanics.
6.
Alec Skempton made great contributions in the field of quaternary geology and was widely consulted on problems involving landslips, foundations, retaining walls and embankments.
7.
Alec Skempton worked on many high-profile projects through his life, notably the back analysis of the Chingford reservoir failure and other embankment dams, including that at Chew Valley Lake, for which he designed an array of sand-drains to accelerate consolidation of the weak alluvial foundations, the first such in the UK.
8.
In situ behaviour of natural clays was of great interest to Alec Skempton, who wrote two papers published by the Geological Society on the geological compaction of natural clays.
9.
Alec Skempton was a founding member of the Institution of Civil Engineers' Soil Mechanics and Foundations committee.
10.
Alec Skempton was an influential contributor to the history of civil engineering.
11.
Alec Skempton chaired the civil engineers archive panel at ICE where he edited works on William Jessop, John Smeaton, regarded as the founder of civil engineering, and early fen drainage engineer John Grundy, and started work on the first volume of A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers of the British Isles, eventually published in 2002.
12.
Alec Skempton was a member of the Links Club of the City and Guilds College whilst at Imperial College.
13.
Alec Skempton delivered the 4th Rankine Lecture titled Long-term stability of clay slopes in 1964.
14.
Alec Skempton accumulated medals from the ICE, the Geological Society, Newcomen Society, and a gold medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers.
15.
Alec Skempton was knighted for services to engineering in the 2000 New Year Honours.
16.
Alec Skempton was elected as the second President of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, following Terzaghi, in 1957.
17.
Alec Skempton won the Terzaghi award from the American Society of Civil Engineers.