Terzaghi, Karl

Terzaghi, Karl (1868–1963) engineer; born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. After graduating from an Austrian technical college, he practiced engineering in Vienna; in 1916 he went to Istanbul to teach and in 1918 joined the faculty of Robert College there. He first came to the U.S.A. in 1925 to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1925–29), then went to Vienna to teach (1929–38), returning to the U.S.A. in 1939; he became a citizen in 1943 and taught at Harvard (1946–56). His entire career was devoted to establishing the modern discipline of soil mechanics—the behavior of soil under stress—and foundation engineering, thereby enabling engineers to design safe foundations, earth dams, etc., on a scientific basis.