Karl Terzaghi is known as the father of modern soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, he is a

mechanical engineer, geotechnical engineer, and geologist. After he graduated, he worked at Viennese
engineering firm that has to do with dams and hydroelectric power plants. In his work in this company, he got
a project in Croatia and Russia that gave him an interest in geology. He then studied about the geological
conditions that has to do with construction projects and the engineering consequences resulting from these
conditions. When he was in Turkey, he attempted to experiment to quantify the properties of the different
particles of soil, the results were published in Erdbaumechanik auf Bodenphysikalischer Grundlage (
Earthwork Mechanics based on the Physics of Soils )

It was in Turkey that the young engineer first attempted to quantify the properties of the vast spectrum of soils
by means of systematic experimentation. His findings were published in his seminal 1925 work
Erdbaumechanik auf Bodenphysikalischer Grundlage ( Earthwork Mechanics based on the Physics of Soils )
which contained the fundamental differential equation for the consolidation process associated with clay
compression, an equation analogous to the diffusion equation governing the time-dependent flow of heat in
solids. The book also contains the theory of effective stress to explain the behavior of soils under loads. The
success of the book led to positions at MIT and the Technical University of Vienna.