Dr Evert Hoek Obituary
Dr. Evert Hoek, born in Rhodesia in 1933 emigrated to England and then to Canada, passed away on July 6, 2024 after a brief illness. He was acknowledged as an international leader in the field of Rock Mechanics and was the proud recipient of two earned and three honorary doctorate degrees. He authored several books and many scientific papers.
Hoek began his research for Rock Mechanics in 1958 (due to problems with brittle rock in deep gold mines in South Africa) and in 1965 at the University of Cape Town PhD (rock fracture under static stress conditions). From 1965, he was at Imperial College, where he set up one faculty-wide center for rock mechanics at the Royal School of Mines. He developed there, among others in 1968, a triaxial test for Rock Mechanics. Later, he became a professor at the University of Toronto in 1975 for twelve years as a senior consulting engineer at Golder Associates (where he was Senior Principal and Chairman) in Vancouver, then an independent consulting engineer with a private engineering firm in Vancouver.
The Hoek–Brown criterion was introduced in 1980 to provide input for the design of underground excavations in rock. The criterion now incorporates both intact rock and discontinuities, such as joints, characterized by the geological strength index (GSI), into a system designed to estimate the mechanical behaviour of typical rock masses encountered.
Dr. Hoek has published more than 100 papers and 3 books. His classic Rock Slope Engineering has been updated by Duncan Wyllie to a 5th edition, published by CRC Press in 2017. Evert Hoek ResearchGate requests: All his significant publications, a 16 chapter eBook entitled Practical Rock Engineering and 6 professionally made videos on rock engineering are available for free download from https://www.rocscience.com/learning/hoeks-corner
