engineering

Norbert Morgenstern

Norbert Morgenstern is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Norbert Morgenstern rather than just read about it. In short: Norbert Rubin Morgenstern (born May 25, 1935) is a Canadian geotechnical engineer and professor, specializing in geotechnical engineering. He has over 300 research publications and more than 40 awards for achievement in engineering.

Key takeaways

Norbert Morgenstern belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Norbert Morgenstern to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Norbert Morgenstern from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Norbert Rubin Morgenstern (born May 25, 1935) is a Canadian geotechnical engineer and professor, specializing in geotechnical engineering. He has over 300 research publications and more than 40 awards for achievement in engineering.

Early life and education Morgenstern was born in Toronto on May 25, 1935 to parents Joel and Bella Morgenstern. He earned a Bachelors degree in engineering from the University of Toronto in 1956. He was awarded the Athlone Fellowship for post-graduate studies, the purpose of which was to send Canadian engineering students to Britain for further study. With the Fellowship, he enrolled at Imperial College London, achieving his Doctorate in soil mechanics in 1964 under the supervision of Sir Alec Skempton.

Career Morgenstern joined the faculty at Imperial College in 1958 as a Research Assistant, before becoming a lecturer in 1960. Dean R. M. Hardy, Dean of Engineering at the University of Alberta and Professor S. R. Sinclair encouraged Morgenstern to return to Canada and join the University of Alberta, which he did in 1968. In 1985, he achieved the distinction of University Professor. He was chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering between 1995 and 1998, and he retired from teaching in 1999. Over the course of his teaching career, Morgenstern supervised 23 masters students and 45 doctoral students. Following his return to Canada, Morgenstern helped develop the framework for modern permafrost engineering. At the same time, he studied the geotechnical aspects of the Alberta oil sands while also researching tailings dams and other waste facilities. This work contributed to the development of Alberta's oil sands and improved environmental integrity in mining. Morgenstern has carried out non-academic work as a consultant on water development projects, landslide studies and other resource development projects in over twenty countries on six continents. He has assisted in technology transfer to developing countries through the United Nations and other agencies. In Canada, he has advised on a number of foundation problems, he has been a consultant to many of the arctic development projects of the past two decades and has been closely associated with both operating oil sand mines. He has participated in more than 140 dam projects worldwide, as well as in special geotechnical problems in Canada and offshore structures. Morgenstern has published more than 300 technical articles.

Research and contributions Morgenstern's research and work concentrates on geotechnical aspects of oil sand development, permafrost engineering, dams, mine waste management, numerical modeling of geotechnical structures, progressive ground failure, landslides and risk analysis. The 1965 publication of his article "The Analysis of the Stability of General Slip Surfaces" with V.E. Price in Géotechnique led to the development of a new limit equilibrium slope stability method called the Morgenstern-Price Method, which is included in various commercial slope stability software programs. This research explored the mechanics of slope stability as it applies to the evaluation of landslides and the design of dams. The 1965 article received the British Geotechnical Association prize (an award he had also received in 1960).

Awards and honours Morgenstern is the recipient of over 40 major honours and awards, including honorary degrees from the University of Toronto, Queen's University, and the University of Alberta. He has delivered the prestigious Rankine, Terzaghi, Casagrande, Rocha and Lumb Lectures. Morgenstern is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. He is a Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Member of the U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian Academy of Engineering. Morgenstern was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 1991 and was invested into the Order of Canada in 2001. He was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. In 2024, Morgenstern received the Lifetime Achievement Medal from the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.

Personal life Morgenstern has been married to his wife Patricia (née Gooderham) since 1960, and the couple have three children and seven grandchildren. Morgenstern had a younger sister, Hilda Friedman.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Norbert Morgenstern

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Norbert Morgenstern claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Norbert Morgenstern before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Norbert Morgenstern ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Norbert Morgenstern

In research: Norbert Morgenstern appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Norbert Morgenstern in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Norbert Morgenstern is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1935 births, Alumni of Imperial College London, Geotechnical engineering, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Norbert Morgenstern outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Norbert Morgenstern in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Norbert Morgenstern means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Norbert Morgenstern out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Norbert Morgenstern in simple terms?

Why does Norbert Morgenstern matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Norbert Morgenstern?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Norbert Morgenstern.