Alexander M. Puzrin (born 24 July 1965) is

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of geotechnical engineering at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, working in the field of

geomechanics Geomechanics (from the Greek prefix ''geo-'' meaning "earth"; and "mechanics") is the study of the mechanical state of the earth's crust and the processes occurring in it under the influence of natural physical factors. It involves the study of th ...

Biography

Alexander Puzrin completed his undergraduate studies in Structural Engineering in 1987 at the Department of Civil Engineering, Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering,

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, and received his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering in 1997 from the Department of Civil Engineering,

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ( he, הטכניון – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל) is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technion ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, Israel. From 1997 to 2001 he was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and then tenured associate professor at the same institution, and from 2002 to 2004 a tenured associate professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, United States. Since 2004 he is Full Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Research

The focus of Puzrin's research is on constitutive modeling of geomaterials and on the analysis of progressive and catastrophic failure in

soils Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ter ...

, with applications to creeping

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

and tsunamigenic submarine landslides. His interests include applications of novel sensor technologies to geotechnical monitoring and the development of innovative chemical and biological soil-improvement techniques. He has been involved as an expert and consultant in large-scale geotechnical projects in the UK, the US, Russia, Mexico,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

, Israel and Switzerland. He is a co-founder of the ETH Zurich spin-off company Marmota Engineering AG.Marmota Engineering AG
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Awards

Alexander Puzrin's papers were awarded by the British

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

with Geotechnical Research Medals in 2004 and 2013, the 2013 George Stephenson Medal, the 2018 David Hislop Award, the Overseas Prize (

Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (15 September 1861 – 12/14 April 1962), also referred to by his initials, MV, was an Indian civil engineer, administrator, and statesman, who served as the 19th Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918. Visvesvaraya i ...

Award) in 2022, and the 2023 Environmental Geotechnics Award. In 2019, he received the Geomaterials Research Medal of the Alliance of Laboratories in Europe for Education, Research and Technology (ALERT). In addition, he served as the Editor of the international journal ''Géotechnique'' from 2012 to 2015. Since 2014, he is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was a recipient of the ETH Zurich Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009 and 2013.

References

External links

Group homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puzrin, Alexander Geotechnical engineers Academic staff of ETH Zurich Fellows of the Institution of Civil Engineers Swiss engineers Living people 1965 births