The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month named a $4.5 million research center in Vicksburg, Miss., after Arthur Casagrande, professor of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Emeritus.

After the dedication, which took place June 28, Lt. Gen. John W. Morris, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, presented Casagrande with a commemorative plaque.

"It's a very great honor," Casagrande, who retired from Harvard in 1976, said yesterday. "I never expected an outstanding building such as this one to be named after me."

Casagrande introduced the school of soil mechanics at Harvard in 1932, and has been a principal consultant to the Corps of Engineers since 1938. He received an honorary degree from Harvard in 1942.