Brady Cox this year’s recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers Prakash Lecturer Award for outstanding research or professional practice contributions in the area of geotechnical engineering or soil dynamics. Photo courtesy of Utah State University.
LOGAN – Once a year the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) presents the Prakash Lecturer Award for outstanding research or professional practice contributions in the area of geotechnical engineering or soil dynamics.
This year’s winner is Utah State University geotechnical engineering professor Brady Cox, a Utah native and USU grad who joined the USU faculty in 2020 after terms at the University of Arkansas and the University of Texas.
He is one of the experts on seismic hazards who has said for years that there will some day be a major earthquake in Utah. In early-2023 he made a statement that apparently caught the attention of Utah lawmakers.
“Utah is the most seismically hazardous state,” he said, “that doesn’t have a dedicated earthquake engineering center, to study the engineering side of earthquakes and how to design and strengthen our infrastructure and lifelines to resist earthquakes.”
During that 2023 legislative session Utah dedicated $2.5 million to initiate the Utah Earthquake Engineering Center. Its aim is to proactively seek engineering solutions to limit deaths, dollars and downtime caused by large seismic events in Utah.
Cox was later named the founding director of that center.
Brady Cox is a native of Helper, Utah, the son of a coal miner. His personal life is influenced by five important women (his wife and four daughters). He spends time training for endurance sports and recently competed in a Ironman Triathlon and 50-mile Ultra-marathon.
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