Engineering prof. gets research award

Ellen Rathje, a civil engineering associate professor, has received the 2007 Shamsher Prakash Research Award from the Shamsher Prakash Foundation for her contributions to geotechnical earthquake engineering. Rathje, selected from nominees worldwide under the age of 40, is an expert in earthquake-induced landslides, the effect of soil conditions on ground shaking and soil liquefaction, in which earthquake shaking causes soils to essentially turn into quicksand.