Presidential honors for former CEU graduate

By By

Brady R. Cox, a graduate of Carbon High School and College of Eastern Utah, has been named by Pres. Barack Obama as one of 96 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers.
He was honored recently in a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution and at a reception with the president at the White House. The PECASE award is the highest honor given by the U. S. government to science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.
Cox, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Arkansas since 2006, has recently accepted a faculty position at the University of Texas. He specializes in earthquake engineering. He was selected for the presidential award because of his work on non-intrusive subsurface imaging using seismic surface wave methods.
These tests are used to determine the layering and dynamic properties of foundation soils under a building site, which is necessary information for designing structures to resist earthquake damage. The aim of his research is to quantify the uncertainty involved in these methods and create standards for them. He hopes this will lead to more accurate data and better building practices.
“Discoveries in science and technology not only strengthen our economy, they inspire us as a people,” Pres. Obama said in a White House announcement. “The impressive accomplishments of today’s awardees so early in their careers promise even greater advances in the years ahead.”
Cox is a member of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association, an international organization that partners with the National Science Foundation to conduct reconnaissance efforts of earthquakes worldwide. He traveled to Haiti as part of this group to document construction failures and collect additional data on the effects of the devastating January 2010 quake that killed more than 300,000 people. He has also traveled to New Zealand, Peru, Japan, Turkey and Hawaii on similar expeditions.
He is the son of Clayton and Jerri Lynn Cox of Helper and the grandson of the late Clyde Cox of Emery County. He graduated from CHS in 1994, where he served as student body president. After graduation from CEU he served an LDS mission in London, United Kingdom. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Utah State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 2006.
He married Audrey Steele, daughter of Curtis and Catherine Steel of Price. They have four daughters.