Ralph Brazelton Peck

Ralph Brazelton Peck (June 23, 1912 – February 18, 2008) was a civil engineer specializing in soil mechanics, the author and co-author of popular soil mechanics and foundation engineering text books, and Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In 1948, together with Karl von Terzaghi, Peck published the book Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, an influential geotechnical engineering text which continues to be regularly cited and is now in a third edition.

Peck made significant contributions to the field of geotechnical engineering, authoring more than 260 technical publications. He undertook work as a consultant on major projects including several large dams in his native Canada, the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam in Zambia, the Saluda Dam in South Carolina, the Wilson Tunnel in Hawaii, the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and various metro systems including those of Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Washington, along with work on the foundations of the Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece.

He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1965, and honored with the National Medal of Science in 1975 by President Gerald Ford for "his development of the science and art of subsurface engineering, combining the contributions of the sciences of geology and soil mechanics with the practical art of foundation design". The Ralph B. Peck Lecture and Medal was established in 2000 by the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers.