Youd received his BES in civil engineering from Brigham Young University in 1964.
He performed post doctoral study in soil mechanics and engineering seismology from 1975 to 1976 at Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.
[1] Youd's research has been primarily concerned with the phenomenon of soil liquefaction, and the associated lateral spreading which can occur.
[4] Youd was made an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2006, an honor bestowed upon fewer than 0.2% of its membership.
Youd earned patent #4,840,230 for a system to retrievably install instruments into a borehole.