Soil Modeling

Forwarded from Sirus

From: USUCGER <usucger-bounces@engr.oregonstate.edu> on behalf of Green, Russell <rugreen@vt.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2023 8:38 AM
To: all@usucger.org <all@usucger.org>
Subject: USUCGER: USUCGER; Jim Mitchell

James (Jim) K. Mitchell passed away peacefully at home in Massachusetts on December 17, 2023.

Jim was born in Manchester, NH, on April 19, 1930. He received a B.C.E. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1951, an S.M. degree from MIT in 1953, and an Sc.D. from MIT in 1956. He worked as a Soil Engineer at the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (now part of ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS, in 1955 and spent 1956-1958 as an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He joined the Civil Engineering faculty at UC Berkeley in 1958, rising through the ranks to become the Edward G. Cahill and John R. Cahill Professor of Civil Engineering in 1989. He retired from UC Berkeley in 1993 and joined the faculty at Virginia Tech in 1994 where he held the rank of University Distinguished Professor. He retired from Virginia Tech in 1999, but remained active in guiding research, co-teaching courses, and presenting seminars until very recently. It is difficult to say how many students Jim advised over his career, but in 2001 he had graduated 72 Ph.D. students and advised/co-advised a few after that. The last student he co-advised completed his Ph.D. in 2021, and Jim has at least one paper that he co-authored that is still in review for a conference that will be held in 2024. This paper will add to his library of more than 500 journal publications, conference papers, reports, keynotes, and invited lectures over the years. However, Jim’s most notable publication is his textbook entitled Soil Behavior; he was working on the fourth edition of this text along with co-authors Professor Kenichi Soga, UC Berkeley, and Professor Catherine O’Sullivan, Imperial College London.

Jim received many awards and recognitions over the years for his research and teaching; too many to list. However, a few highlights are as follows. He was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering (1976) and the National Academy of Science (1998), an honor granted to very few Civil Engineers. He received the ASCE Normal Medal twice (1972, 1995), was both an ASCE Terzaghi Lecturer (1984) and a British Geotechnical Society Rankine Lecturer (1991), and was an Honorary Member of ASCE (1993).

Jim was a great friend and mentor to many. Despite his accomplishments, he was humble and always ready to learn something new. He had a good sense of humor and never took himself too seriously. His passing is a loss for all who were fortunate to know him.

With great sadness, Rick Mitchell, Russell Green, and Kenichi Soga

*************************************************
Russell A. Green, PhD, PE
Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (MC 0105)
Patton, 120B, Virginia Tech
750 Drillfield Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-9826 ph
(540) 231-7532 fx
rugreen@vt.edu

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