Alan W. Bishop

For other people named Alan Bishop, see Alan Bishop (disambiguation).

Alan Wilfred Bishop
Born(1920-05-27)27 May 1920
Whitstable, England
Died30 June 1988(1988-06-30) (aged 68)
Whitstable, England
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Alma materImperial College London, UK
University of Cambridge, UK
Known forBishop's method of Slope stability analysis
Awards6th Rankine Lecture (1966)
Scientific career
FieldsSoil mechanics
InstitutionsImperial College London, UK
Academic advisorsAlec Skempton
Notable studentsNicholas Ambraseys, John H. Atkinson, Peter Rolfe Vaughan, Stephen G. Evans

Alan Wilfred Bishop (27 May 1920 – 30 June 1988) was a British geotechnical engineer and academic, working at Imperial College London.

He was known for the Bishop's method[1] of analysing soil slopes. After his graduation from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Bishop worked under Alec Skempton and obtained his PhD in 1952 with his thesis title being: The stability of earth dams.[2] He worked extensively in the field of experimental Soil mechanics and developed apparati for soil testing, such as the triaxial test and the ring shear.

His contribution to the science was widely acknowledged and he was invited in 1966 to deliver the 6th Rankine Lecture of the British Geotechnical Association titled: The strength of soils as engineering materials.[3] In October 1966 he was appointed by the Tribunal inquiring into the Aberfan Disaster of 20-21 October 1966 to manage the site investigations into the causes of the spoil slip that resulted in the loss of the lives of 144 people, of which 116 were children.[4]

Nowadays, a part of the Soil Mechanics Laboratories at Imperial College is named after him in recognition of his long-time work at the College.

See also

References

  1. ^ Bishop's method
  2. ^ Bishop A. W. (1952), The stability of earth dams. PhD Thesis, Imperial College London
  3. ^ Bishop A. W. (1966), The strength of soils as engineering materials. Rankine Lecture, Geotechnique, 16 (2), 91–130
  4. ^ Harding, Sir Harold; Davey, Amanda (2015). It's Warmer Down Below: the autobiography of Sir Harold Harding, 1900–1986. Sussex: Tilia Publishing UK. ISBN 978-0-9933965-0-2.
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