Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

A.H. Fuller, professor and chair from 1920 to 1938, wrote a history of the department (pdf). It includes information about the curriculum, faculty achievements, alumni success, and chronicles the beginning of the surveying camp.

Research in geotechnical engineering at Iowa State University has a stellar heritage. It began in 1906 under the leadership of Anson Marston, the first dean of the College of Engineering. This remarkable man was a visionary whose influence in civil engineering research gained national prestige for the college.

With his colleagues, Marston firmly established Iowa State University’s leadership role in highway system research, including investigations of soil structure interaction for buried conduit. Marston led the movement to establish the national Highway Research Board (today’s Transportation Research Board) under the direction of the National Research Council, and served as its first chair.

Early contributions by ISU researchers to the field of geotechnical engineering include the Marston-Spangler theories of loading and design of underground conduits and measurement and characterization of soil pressures on retaining walls. Research on soil stabilization was the focus of Donald T. Davidson’s research in the late 1950s and early 1960s and provided the starting point for the current research on civil engineering materials.

Research in developing in situ tests to measure soil and rock properties was undertaken in the 1960s through 1980s by Richard L. Handy and co-workers, which led to the development of the Borehole Shear Test (BST) and Ko Stepped Blade.

Read Dr. Handy's popular Screenings from the Soil Research Lab, 1957-1967.