The 2025 Prakash Lecture will feature Dr. Craig H. Benson, the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) 2024-25 Kappe Lecturer and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Dean of Engineering Emeritus at the University of Virginia. His lecture, titled “Does Harvesting Coal Ash for Use as Cementitious Material Promote Sustainability?” will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, in Room 120 Butler-Carlton Hall. It is free and open to the public. The Zoom link is as follows: https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/92041546392

According to Benson, using harvested ashes as supplemental cementitious materials (SCMs) has the potential to reduce environmental impacts while improving the quality of concrete materials. However, excavating and disposing of these ashes from landfills has a smaller impact than harvesting from impoundments because the ash in impoundments is wetter, affecting the energy consumption and emissions generated when excavating and transporting the ashes. 

Benson is a geoenvironmental engineer with extensive expertise in waste management, waste containment systems, recycling and beneficial reuse, and sustainability. He is recognized as a foremost international authority on waste containment systems and is widely sought after for his expertise in design, operation, and performance assessment of waste disposal facilities. 

The Shamsher and Sally Prakash Distinguished Lecture Series was established through a gift from Dr. Shamsher Prakash, professor emeritus of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, and his wife, Sally.

Prakash joined the Missouri S&T civil engineering faculty in 1978 as an associate professor in geotechnical engineering. He retired in 2000. Prakash has made numerous contributions to the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering, and he is recognized for advancing the study of soil dynamics and earthquake engineering. He is considered a pioneer in the liquefaction of silts and clays, as well as soil-pile-structure interactions.