Robert M. Koerner

Robert M. Koerner (b. December 2, 1932) is an American engineer and academic. He is Professor Emeritus at Drexel University and Director Emeritus of the Geosynthetic Institute.

Koerner has been interested in geotechnical/geosynthetic engineering since graduating from Drexel with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree in 1956. Academically this was followed with an MSCE from Drexel in 1963 and a Ph.D. from Duke in 1968. He took additional engineering courses at Columbia and Delaware and also law courses at Temple between his masters and doctoral degrees. His teaching/research faculty career began in 1968 and continued at Drexel until his retirement in 2004.

Subsequently (and to the current time) he was Founder and Director, and then Director Emeritus at the Geosynthetic Institute in the Philadelphia suburb of Folsom, Pennsylvania. Koerner has published widely (~750 books, book chapters, papers in journals, conferences, symposia, magazines and major research reports). His most widely used publication is the sixth edition of his textbook Designing With Geosynthetics. It has sold over 40,000 copies and has been translated into several languages.

Koerner is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania, an honorary member of ASCE, a “diplomat”, “hero” and “legend” of the GeoInstitute. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Diplomat in the Academy of Geo-Professionals in its inaugural class of 2009. Symposia in his honor are from Drexel in 2003, ASCE's Mechanics Section in 2005, and GeoInstitute's Geoenvironmental Engineering Division in 2015. He was awarded the Geosynthetic Materials Association's Robert M. Koerner Biennial Lectureship in 2017.

• Koerner, R. M. (2012), Designing With Geosynthetics, 6th Edition, Xlibris Publishing CO., 914 pgs.
• Koerner, R. M. and Koerner, P. W. (2008), Bob and Paula Koerner: A Success Story, Xlibris Publishing Co., 255 pgs.
• Koerner, R. M. (2016), Geotextiles: From Design to Applications, Woodhead Publishing Co., Amsterdam, 617 pgs.