Dr. W.D. Liam Finn, professor emeritus of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia and president of Pan-American Engineering and Computing Services Ltd., will present as part of the Shamsher and Sally Prakash Distinguished Lecture Series in Geotechnical Engineering.

The lecture, titled “Aspects of Soil-Structure Interaction,” will be held at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, in Room 125 Butler-Carlton Hall. It is free and open to the public.

The lecture will discuss various ways of accounting for soil-structure interaction from analysis of the total soil-structure system to analysis of various approximate models of the system. The focus is on three types of structures, buildings on slab foundations, tall buildings with several levels of underground parking and bridges on pile foundations.

The Shamsher and Sally Prakash Distinguished Lecture Series was established through a gift from Dr. Shamsher Prakash, professor emeritus of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, and his wife, Sally.

Shamsher Prakash joined the Missouri S&T civil engineering faculty in 1978 as an associate professor in geotechnical engineering. He retired in 2000. Prakash has made numerous contributions to the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering, and he is recognized for advancing the study of soil dynamics and earthquake engineering. He is considered a pioneer in the liquefaction of silts and clays, as well as soil-pile-structure interactions.

Dr. Finn will also present a keynote address as part of the 2019 GeoMO Conference hosted by Missouri S&T, to be held Friday, May 10, at the Millennium Student Center-UMSL-SGA Chambers. The theme for the 2019 GeoMo conference, “Advancements in Seismic Geotechnical Engineering” will be addressed by distinguished members in the field; Dr. Finn will be joined by Dr. Ahmed Elgamal, Dr. Ronaldo Luna, Dr. Brent Rosenblad, and Dr. Guney Olgun. More details can be found at geomo.mst.edu.