Evert Hoek FREng (23 August 1933 – 6 July 2024) was a Zimbabwean-Canadian mechanical engineer specializing in geotechnical engineering and a leading international expert in rock mechanics.

Life and career

Hoek was born in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

on 23 August 1933. He began his research for Rock Mechanics in 1958 (due to problems with brittle rock in deep gold mines in South Africa) and in 1965 at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

PhD (rock fracture under static stress conditions). From 1965, he was at Imperial College, where he set up one faculty-wide center for rock mechanics at the Royal School of Mines. He developed there, among others in 1968, a triaxial test for Rock Mechanics. Later, he became a professor at the University of Toronto in 1975 for twelve years as a senior consulting engineer at Golder Associates (where he was Senior Principal and Chairman) in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, then an independent consulting engineer with a private engineering firm in Vancouver. Hoek was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2006 for major worldwide contributions in the development and application of rational design procedures for engineered systems in rock. He was also a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

and the

Canadian Academy of Engineering The Canadian Academy of Engineering () is a national academy of distinguished professional engineers in fields of engineering, who are elected on the basis of "their distinguished service and contribution to society, to the country and to the profes ...

. He received a doctorate degree (D. Sc.) from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and honorary doctorates in the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

and the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

. He received the first prize of the Mueller International Society of Rock Mechanics and was the 1983 Rankine Lecturer (Strength of jointed rock masses) and 2000 Terzaghi Lecturer (Big tunnels in bad rock). Hoek published more than 100 papers and 3 books. His classic ''Rock Slope Engineering'' has been updated by Duncan Wyllie to a 5th edition, published by CRC Press in 2017. He died on 6 July 2024, at the age of 90.

References

External links

Rock Science. Hoek's Corner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoek, Evert 1933 births 2024 deaths Canadian civil engineers Immigrants to Canada Rhodesian emigrants Geotechnical engineers

Life and career

See also

References

External links