http://mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/article_896.html

We have just learned that Professor Alan Needleman, of the University of North Texas, will receive the 2011 Timoshenko Medal.

Alan Needleman has been a leading innovator in developing the mechanics of large plastic deformation and  fracture.  His career has been intertwined with the rise of the field of computational solid mechanics.  To this field he has made many significant and lasting contributions, usually as the first to demonstrate that computational approaches are both feasible and likely to yield insight.

Needleman performed the first finite element calculations of void growth and coalescence (in early 1970's), of necking in tensile bars (in 1972), of debonding using models which embed cohesive zones (in 1983), and ductile crack growth using models which simulate void nucleation, growth and coalescence (in the early 80's). There are more major contributions. He was one of the first to perform accurate numerical computation of the development of shear band localizations in realistic geometries, and the pictures of emerging bands which came out of the studies where widely regarded as "classics". He has simulated crack growth patterns, including bifurcation and branching, in the dynamic fracture of brittle materials. Most recently, he originated and still drives the effort to development computational methods to predict macroscopic stress-strain behavior based on discrete dislocation mechanics. In all these cases, his primary contribution has been to lead the way and to demonstrate the feasibility and power of computational approaches to the particular phenomenon.

Frank A. McClintock, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, passed away on Feb. 20, in the Briarwood Health Care facility in Needham, Mass. at the age of 90.

After getting his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1950, Frank (MIT ’43, SM ’43) was named assistant professor at MIT and served at the Department of Mechanical Engineering until he retired in 1990 and became professor emeritus. 

George Bugliarello, president emeritus and former chancellor of Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly), an acknowledged visionary who brought about significant changes in engineering and education, died after a short illness on February 18.  He was trained in hydrodynamics and civil engineering.  His lifelong investigation was  how natural, mechanical, information and energy systems affect society.   

Congratulations to Julian Rimoli (who's one of the moderators of iMechanica) for winning the 2010 James Clerk Maxwell Young Writers Prize!

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/tphm-tphl-prize.asp

Rodney Hill was born on 11 June 1921.  He was a Reader, then Professor, in The Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), of The University of Cambridge, during the period 1969-1979. He is widely regarded as among the foremost contributors to the foundations of solid mechanics over the second half of the 20th century. He was author of 'The Mathematical Theory of Plasticity' published in 1950.

He established the 'Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids' in 1952 and acted as its Editor-in-Chief until 1968. He was elected FRS in 1961 and was awarded a Royal Medal by the Royal Society in 1993 'for his outstanding contribution to the theoretical mechanics of solids, and especially the plasticity of solids'.

Professors John Rogers and Ares Rosakis were elected to NAE, among the 68 new NAE members. 

John A. Rogers, Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair in Engineering, department of materials science and engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For novel electronic and optoelectronic devices and systems.

Ares J. Rosakis, Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and professor of mechanical engineering, and chair, division of engineering and applied science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. For discovery of intersonic rupture, contributions to understanding dynamic failure, and methods to determine stresses in thin-film structures.

I have been asking colleagues this question for some time.  I was a Ph.D. student of John W. Hutchinson, who was a Ph.D. student of Bernard Budiansky, who was a Ph.D. student of William Prager.  But for years, the Mathematics Genealogy Project listed the advisor for Prager as “unknown”.

In the following the italicized portions were stricken from the oral presentation to better approximate the time length suggested. They are retained here primarily for the preservation of historical developments in mechanics.

Experimental Mechanics of History

It is a great honor to be selected to address you tonight on the occasion of receiving the Timoshenko Medal, the award notification of which caught me by total surprise. Selections for such honors are sometimes difficult and possibly contentious processes, and I thank the 15 or so colleagues making up the various committee groups for their forbearance and benevolence towards me. I am proud of this award, because it makes me only the fourth Caltech faculty recipient, with Theodore von Karman, Eli Sternberg and Anatol Roshko the forerunners, and with two of these being heavily devoted to experimental work. I belong to a generation that no longer has a personal connection to Stepan Prokofievich Timoshenko, nor do I possess an academic genealogy which connects me to him, other than the assiduous studies of his “black books” as other Timoshenko awardees have called them. Instead, my history links me, in direct sequence, to Max Williams, Ernie Sechler, Theodore von Karman, Ludwig Prandtl, August Föppel and Christian Otto Mohr, of Mohr’s circle fame: I owe a lot to these, my academic “forefathers”.

One of the intended purposes of the addresses following the Timoshenko award dinners is, if somewhat loosely, to preserve a history of (applied) mechanics. The choice of my title implies the reverse, namely that mechanics can and does describe or control history. That is indeed true if one thinks of the structural systems that contain viscoelastic materials which require the tracking of the deformation or loading histories to describe the system response. This may be a superficial twist of words, but the realistic implications are severe, as, I hope, you will see.

Mandelbrot has passed away last week.  A very interesting  mathematician, who received tenure from Yale only at 75, he has introduced fractals also in fracture mechanics.

Benoit Mandelbrot, Father of Fractals, Dies at 85

I feel honoured to share this news that, Dr. Vikram deshpande of cambridge University engineering department is appointed as Professor, effective October 1. He is quite a inspiration to people like me who work in solid mechanics.His contribution to this area is immense and i really feel happy for his acheivements and many more to come.

My heartiest congragulations to him

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Young-Mumbaikar-set-to-be-Cambridge-professor/articleshow/6640017.cms

Karthic

It is with the deepest sadness that I inform you that Professor Jerrold E. Marsden passed away on September 21.

http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~marsden/

http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~marsden/remembrances/?p=1

Hans Ziegler was born on 5 September 1910.  Tomorrow will be his 100th birthday.  A websit has been created to make his work as a scientist, as a teacher and as a personality accessible to the public.

From 1930 to 1936 he studied mechanical engineering and physics at the famous “Swiss Federal Institute of Technology” (ETH). In 1938 he received the degree of Doctor of Mathematical Sciences while working in the field of applied mechanics under Prof. Dr. E. Meissner of Switzerland and Prof. Dr. R. Grammel of Germany. In 1942 he was appointed Full Professor of Mechanics at the ETH and remained in this position until his retirement in 1977.

It is with great sadness that I report the passing away of Prof. Don Carlson. The link below describes his life and work.

http://mechse.illinois.edu/content/news/article.php?article_id=410

Qian Weichang passed away on 30 July 2010. 

He was 98.

Qian, a pioneer in mechanics and applied mathematics in
modern China, was one of the three famous "Qians" in China's science and
technology field. He was well known alongside Qian Xuesen, the father
of China's space program, and Qian Sanqiang, a nuclear physicist who
oversaw the development of China's nuclear program.

Read the full article on Xinhua net. 

You can download a pdf file of this announcement.

The Applied Mechanics Division seeks nominations for the awards listed below. All awards are international. Each nomination should include a nomination form and 4-5 letters of support, as described at http://www.asme.org/Governance/Honors/SocietyAwards/Nominate.cfm. Each nomination should be emailed as a single PDF file to the chair of the Applied Mechanics Division, Tayfun Tezduyar (tezduyar@gmail.com) by 5 November 2010. This deadline is firm. Nominations submitted after this deadline will be considered for the subsequent award year.

Xiaodong Li, of the University of South Carolina, has graciously agreed to be a new Editor of the iMechanica Journal Club.  iMechanica has now over 20,000 registered users.  Xiaodong is one of the earliest active users (user number 48), and has played a large role in shaping the development of iMechanica.  He has been advocating for strong participation from experimentalists, and for highlighting significant applications of mechanics.

Professor Yonggang Huang is selected to receive the 2010 Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award.

The Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award, a joint award of Pi Tau Sigma and ASME, is presented to the engineering graduate who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering twenty years or more following graduation. Any person who, on July 1 of the year of the award, graduated twenty years or more from the regular engineering program of a recognized college or university shall be eligible for recognition.

Vladimir Arnold died on 3rd of June 2010 in Paris, just 9 days before his 73rd birthday.

I am sure many mechanicians know him by his books, such as

Professor Wolfgang Knauss, of the California Institute of Technology, is selected to receive the 2010 Timoshenko Medal.

I am writing on behalf of the Timoshenko Medal Committee: Zhigang Suo (Chair), Tayfun E. Tezduyar, Ares J. Rosakis, Kenneth M. Liechti, Lawrence A. Bergman, Daniel J. Inman, Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar, Thomas N. Farris, Wing Kam Liu, Mary C. Boyce, Sia Nemat-Nasser, Thomas Hughes, Ken Johnson, Grigory Barenblatt, Morton Gurtin.

Professor Nicolas Triantafyllidis, of Ecole Polytechnique and the University of Michigan, is selected to receive the 2010 Warner T. Koiter Medal.

I am writing on behalf of the Warner T. Koiter Medal Committee: Zhigang Suo (Chair), Tayfun E. Tezduyar, Ares J. Rosakis, Kenneth M. Liechti, Lawrence A. Bergman, Daniel J. Inman, Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar, Thomas N. Farris, Wing Kam Liu, Mary C. Boyce, Richard James, C.T. Sun, Pierre Suquet, Ray Ogden, Zenon Mroz.

Professor Rohan Abeyaratne, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is selected to receive the 2010 Daniel C. Drucker Medal.

I am writing on behalf of the Daniel C. Drucker Medal Committee: Zhigang Suo (Chair), Tayfun E. Tezduyar, Ares J. Rosakis, Kenneth M. Liechti, Lawrence A. Bergman, Daniel J. Inman, Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar, Thomas N. Farris, Wing Kam Liu, Mary C. Boyce, Thomas C.T. Ting, Albert Kobayyashi, Alan Needleman, Robert Taylor, Franck A. McClintock.

Professor Herbert Hui, of Cornell University, has been named the 2011 recipient of The Adhesion Society Award for Excellence in Adhesion Science, Sponsored by 3M.

The Award will be presented during the 34th Annual Meeting of The Adhesion Society in Savannah, GA, USA, 13-16 February 2011.

The citation reads:  "For his meritorious and creative contributions to the application of fracture mechanics in understanding the problems of adhesion science."

Frederick F. Lange, Professor of Materials, of the University of California at Santa Barbara, passed away suddenly on Friday, in Tucson, after watching his daughter defend her PhD.

Fred was an internationally renowned innovator in the field of the mechanical behavior of ceramics.  Although not a mechanician by training, his deep and sustained interest in cracking and toughening of ceramics led him to interact with the community of mechanics.  His creative experiments have inspired theoretical analyses, as well as practical innovations. Here is a profile of his work. 

He liked people, and traveled a lot.  His friends would receive a letter during the holiday season each year, describing his new adventures in research, his wood work, his family, and his many trips together with his dear wife.  His lectures were exceptionally entertaining and memorable, filled with perceptive remarks from the experience of a long career of a brilliant mind.

He will be dearly remembered by his students, friends, and colleagues.