Karl von Terzaghi

Karl von Terzaghi
Karl Terzaghi (1926)
Born	October 3, 1883 Prague, Austria-Hungary
Died	October 25, 1963(1963-10-25) (aged 80) Winchester, Massachusetts, United States of America
Fields	Civil engineering, Geotechnical engineering
Notable students	Cinna Lomnitz
Spouse	Ruth Dogget Terzaghi

Karl von Terzaghi (October 2, 1883 – October 25, 1963) was an Austrian civil engineer, geotechnical engineer and geologist known as the "father of soil mechanics".

In 1883, he was born the first child of Army Lieutenant-Colonel Anton von Terzaghi, of Italian origin, and Amalia Eberle in Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. Upon his father's retirement from the army, the family moved to Graz, Austria.

At 10, Terzaghi was sent to a military boarding school, where he developed an interest in astronomy and geography. At age fourteen, Terzaghi entered a different military school, in Hranice, the Crown of Bohemia. He was an excellent student, especially in geometry and mathematics, and graduated with honors at 17.

In 1900, Terzaghi entered the Technical University in Graz to study mechanical engineering, where he also developed an interest in theoretical mechanics. He was nearly expelled at one point but ended up graduating with honors in 1904. Terzaghi then fulfilled his compulsory one-year military service. While fulfilling his military obligations, Terzaghi translated and greatly expanded a popular English geology field manual to German. He returned to the university for one year and combined the study of geology with courses on subjects such as highway and railway engineering. Shortly afterward, he published his first academic paper on the geology of terraces in southern Styria.