In recent Geo-Strata magazines published by the ASCE’s Geo-Institute, there is a new recurring feature called ‘Geo-Legends’ where a student interviews a well known person in the field of geotechnical engineering. The second in the series was written on T. William Lambe, among many other things, he was the co-author of two books with Bob Witman, Soil Testing and Soil Mechanics. Below is one of my favorite Q&A’s from the article:
Q: Do engineers depend too much on technology today? I think the fundamentals are by far the most important. Most of the problems and failures that I see are not from lack of sophisticated analysis, but from not understanding and using the fundamentals.
You can download a text version of the interview from the link below.
[Source: Geo-Institute. Image: NC State University]