Arthur Casagrande

After emigrating to the United States in 1926, Arthur Casagrande worked closely with Karl Terzaghi, who is widely considered the "father of soil mechanics." Together, they laid the foundational principles of modern soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering.

Casagrande made fundamental contributions to the field, most notably standardizing the Atterberg limits used to classify the plasticity of fine-grained soils. He also developed the Casagrande piezometer, an instrument still widely used to measure groundwater pressure.

Arthur Casagrande spent the majority of his academic career as a professor at Harvard University. He joined the faculty there in 1932 and helped establish their renowned soil mechanics program, teaching many future leaders in the field.

The Casagrande box is a laboratory device used in direct shear tests to determine the shear strength of soil samples. It consists of a soil sample placed inside a split brass box, which allows engineers to measure how the soil slips under varying pressure.