Thompson addresses mechanistic-empirical flexible pavement design at 12th ISAP Conference

Marshall Thompson, professor emeritus of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has received the 2014 Carl L. Monismith Award from the ASCE Geo-Institute. The award was presented June 2 during the 12th International Society for Asphalt Pavements Conference at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. The award citation reads: “For five decades of leadership in pavement engineering, including pioneering research on the geotechnical aspects of pavements and mechanistic pavement design and performance prediction.”

In his presentation, “M-E Flexible Pavement Design: Issues and Challenges,” Thompson considered the historical development of M-E (mechanistic-empirical) design, materials characterization, structural modelling, and design criteria.

Thompson has been a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Illinois since 1962.  He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D., all in civil engineering, from 1956 through 1964 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His major fields of interest are flexible pavements analysis, design and construction, paving materials, subgrade soils and subgrade stability, soil/material stabilization, and concrete pavement rehabilitation. Thompson retired in 1996 but remains active in research and academic activities and is still a very active consultant for other civil engineering professors at Illinois as well as for industry.

The ASCE Geo-Institute established the Monismith Lecture in recognition of Professor Carl L. Monismith, whose teaching and research career in pavement technology at the University of California, Berkeley, spans more than 50 years. The C. L. Monismith Lecture is awarded annually for outstanding research contributions in pavement engineering.