Harry Bolton Seed

Harry Bolton Seed
Harry Bolton Seed at theUC Berkeley Faculty Clubin 1969.
Born	(1922-08-19)August 19, 1922 Bolton,England
Died	April 23, 1989(1989-04-23)(aged 66) Orinda, California,United States
Alma mater	King's College London
Scientific career
Fields	Civil Engineering
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley

Harry Bolton Seed rela xing at home in 1987.

Harry Bolton Seed(August 19, 1922 – April 23, 1989) was an educator, scholar, former professor at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.He was regarded as the founding father of geotechnical earthquake engineering.

Biography

Early life

Harry Bolton Seed was born inBolton,England, on August 19, 1922, into a family of a cotton mill manager. His father was Arthur Bolton Seed, and his mother's maiden name was Annie Wood; his sister Dorothy was nine years older than he was. He spent his childhood inLancashireand attended Farnworth Grammar School, where he exhibited talent both at sports and academics. At the age of eighteen he chose a scholarship toKing's College Londonover a possible professional soccer career. Seed's studies were interrupted by theSecond World War,when he served the military as a lieutenant. After military service, Seed returned to theUniversity of Londonto finish his study, and received a BSc in Civil Engineering in 1944 and a PhD in Structural Engineering in 1947. His thesis title was "Non-elastic deformations in concrete and their effects on design".Seed also captained the University of London's soccer team, and the All-England team during this period. Following two years as assistant lecturer at King's College, Seed came toHarvard Universityto study soil mechanics under the tutelage of engineering giantsKarl TerzaghiandArthur Casagrande.He received his S.M. degree from Harvard in 1948 and spent the next year as an instructor at Harvard, followed by a year as a foundation engineer for Thomas Worcester, Inc., in Boston.

Career at the University of California, Berkeley

In 1950 Seed joined the civil engineering faculty at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,where he finished his career as an educator, researcher and consultant to public agencies and private businesses.He built up the geotechnical engineering program at Berkeley into one of the best in the world. He served as chair of the Civil Engineering Department from 1965 to 1971. He successfully guided fifty PhD degree candidates to complete their dissertations during his career. He died of cancer at his home in Orinda, California on April 23, 1989.

Father of geotechnical earthquake engineering

Professor Seed's published nearly 300 papers and reports on various topics onGeotechnical Engineering.His early research on pile-soil interaction, soil compaction and pavement formed the scientific basis for modern design. In the 1960s he established a new research area,geotechnical earthquake engineering,and he is commonly regarded as the founding father of this area. His pioneering works included the development of equivalent linear method (SHAKE) for seismic site response analysis,soil structure interactionanalysis, evaluation and mitigation ofsoil liquefaction,etc. He investigated many major disasters, such as the 1964Great Alaska earthquake,the1971 San Fernando earthquakein California, the 1976 failure of theTeton dam,the 1979 slide at the port ofNicein France, and the 1985Mexico City earthquake.He served as a consultant on hundreds of projects all over the world, including more than 100 major dams, more than 20 nuclear power plants, and innumerable major buildings and transportation facilities. His research, founded on sound scientific principles, have led to a total revision of concepts and methods for geotechnical earthquake design, as well as revision of codes of practice, design procedures, and regulations throughout the world.

Honors and awards

Seed received numerous awards and honors during his career. He was elected to theNational Academy of Engineeringin 1970 andNational Academy of Sciencesin 1986. He received theNational Medal of Science,the nation's highest scientific honor, from President Reagan in 1987. TheAmerican Society of Civil Engineersaccorded him more awards than any other engineer in the history of the society, including twoNorman Medals,three James J. R. Croes Medals, fourThomas A. Middlebrooks Awards,and Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize, Wellington Prize, Walter A. Huber Research Prize, theKarl TerzaghiAward. He was elected honorary member in theAmerican Society of Civil Engineersin 1985, honorary member in theEarthquake Engineering Research Institutein 1988. He was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award and Faculty Research Lecturer from theUniversity of California. He was theKarl von TerzaghiLecturer in 1967 and gave theRankine Lecturein 1979. In 1993,American Society of Civil Engineersestablished H. Bolton Seed Medal in his honor.

External links

• "H. Bolton Seed; Renowned Civil Engineer at UC".Obituary.26 April 1989.
• James K. Mitchell, "Harry Bolton Seed", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1995)