Scott M. Olson

Assistant Professor

2230d Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory

Phone: (217) 265-7584

Fax: 217-265-8041

Email: olsons@uiuc.edu

Personal website: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/olsons/www/

Scott M. Olson holds a B.S. (University of Illinois 1993), M.S. (University of Illinois 1995), and Ph.D. (University of Illinois 2001), all in civil engineering. From 1995 through 1997, Scott worked in private practice for Woodward-Clyde Consultants. After completed his Ph.D., Dr. Olson returned to private practice with URS Corporation and also taught geotechnical earthquake engineering courses at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Scott joined the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois in August 2004.

Dr. Olson currently teaches an undergraduate course in geotechnical engineering and a graduate course on insitu testing and field measurements. His research interests include: liquefaction of level and sloping ground, paleoseismology and paleoliquefaction, soft ground engineering, in situ testing, geosynthetics, and instrumentation.

Dr. Olson is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the North American Geosynthetics Society. Dr. Olson previously was a member of the governor-appointed Missouri Seismic Safety Commission and currently serves on a review board for the National Highway Cooperative Research Program. Dr. Olson is a licensed professional engineer and continues to participate in consulting projects with industry.

Dr. Olson has received several honors and awards for his research, practice-related, and teaching accomplishments. In 2003, the Canadian Geotechnical Society awarded Scott the R.M. Quigley Award for the best paper in the 2002 Canadian Geotechnical Journal. In 2004, the American Society of Civil Engineers awarded Scott the Arthur Casagrande Award for his work on the residual strength of liquefied soils. The Casagrande Award was established to provide professional development opportunities for outstanding, young (under 35) practitioners, researchers, and teachers of geotechnical engineering. Dr. Olson was the first practicioner to receive this award.