Passing of Professor Peter Byrne

Professor Peter Byrne died peacefully Thursday, August 17, 2017. He had joined the Department in 1967 after completing his MASc in 1966, and he completed his PhD at UBC a short time later in 1969.

Professor Peter Byrnee was promoted to Associate Professor in 1978 and full Professor in 1983. He was an avid sailor and competed for Canada in a sailing event at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Professor Byrne made significant contributions in the area of geotechnical and earthquake engineering, with a focus on the static and earthquake response of soil structures, soil structure interaction, stress-strain models for soil, physical model tests, and deformation analyses. One of his important contributions is the development of the effective stress constitutive model UBCSAND. He retired from the Department in 2001. In 2014, Professor Byrne was awarded the Canadian Geotechnical Society’s prestigious R.F. Legget Medal, which is the society’s highest honour presented to an individual for “outstanding, life-long contributions to geotechnique.” He received his award at a special Vancouver event in February 2015, as he was not able to travel to the CGS Conference in fall 2014.