Award
Presentation Remarks
Richard Gallagher
President of Clarkson University.
Before
I introduce tonight's honoree, I would like to read the
citation of the award:
"The
von Neumann Medal is awarded by The U.S. Association of
Computational Mechanics in recognition of outstanding
contributions and eminent achievement in the field of
computational mechanics, including, but not limited to
research, development, teaching and significant achievement
of the state of the art."
The
first recipient of this prestigious award meets every one
of these criteria and some others as well. I will describe
how those criteria have been met, but before I do, I wish
to make some brief remarks about John von Neumann.
von
Neumann, born in Hungary and a Princeton mathematician,
conducted brilliant research during the 1930s and 1940s.
Indeed, he was known as a child prodigy. His career came
to a premature end at age 54 in 1957, but not before he
developed not merely the mathematical logic that underlies
electronic computers, but also some of the algorithms that
computers are used for.
I have
had a long friendship with tonight's medal recipient, Professor
J. Tinsley Oden, but I had heard of him long before I met
him. A colleague of mine at Bell Aerosystems in Buffalo,
New York, had travelled to Huntsville, Alabama, in the early
1960s. It was then unusual to meet anyone in one's travels
who worked in finite elements, but my acquaintance returned
from that trip excited by the fact that he had met someone
brimful of ideas on the field I was working in as well,
someone named Tinsley Oden.
Then,
in 1969, I and Ted Kawai, who has preceded me on this platform,
organized the first U.S.--Japan Seminar on Finite Elements.
Each country was strictly limited to 20 participants, and
it was during that memorable venture that I first met Tinsley.
There were young participants, old participants, and individuals
from many different endeavors. Everyone possessed a formidable
reputation. The young Tinsley Oden drew special recognition,
however, because of the prodigious output he had launched.
That has never diminished throughout the years.
The
breadth and scope of his output defies, for me, the ability
to provide an adequate description. Let me try to do so
in outline, by use of a lower bound theorem. He has authored
or co--authored no fewer than 30 books and edited 30 others.
He has over 350 published papers to his credit. Let me cite
just three books. In the 1960s he wrote the Mechanics of
Elastic Structures a marvelous introductory text on advanced
strength of materials. I have used it in courses I have
taught and recommend it highly. In 1972 his Finite Elements
of Nonlinear Continua broke new ground in the utilization
of modern applied mathematics in finite element theory.
And, with colleagues, he set out virtually every basic concept
in finite element analysis in his multi--volume book series.
In research
publications, again to just mention a few, he contributed
key fundamental papers in finite elements for fluid dynamics,
contact problems, space--time finite elements, inelasticity,
plate and shell analysis, and adaptivity.
In this
award, of course, we should not look only at published work.
His excellence in instruction is legendary. Who can match
his capability, to describe with perfect clarity, the very
sophisticated lines of investigation I have just enumerated?
His students speak to this excellence. I did not intend
to single anyone out -- but, as the Treasurer of USCAM,
J. N. Reddy has already been introduced, let me recognize
him again as representative of those who have studied with
Tinsley Oden towards the Ph. D. degree.
Finally,
there is the dimension of public service. Tinsley, you have
contributed to professional colleagues everywhere in this
dimension. You created the Texas Institute for Computational
Mechanics, a mecca for scholars in the field. You have served
as president of the American Academy of Mechanics, the Society
for Engineering Science, and a large number of mechanics
committees. Today, you lead The International Association
of Computational Mechanics, the very organization that ties
together the national groups in computational mechanics,
such as USCAM. We are in your debt.
Tinsley,
you have received awards in your illustrious career -- honorary
degrees, membership in the National Academy of Engineering,
ASME's Worcester Reed Warner Medal, and many, many others.
But we, at USCAM, take a special pride this evening in presenting
you with the von Neumann medal of this Society.
Award
Acceptance Speech
J. Tinsley Oden,
University of Texas at Austin.
To my
dear friends, Dick and Terry Gallagher, to President Ted
Belytschko and to other friends and guests, to Ahmed Noor,
our host and organizer, to Olek Zienkiewicz, Ted Kawai,
Tom Hughes, Bob Taylor, Sam Key, Pedro and Mary Marcal,
Walter Wunderlich, Ervin Stein, Les Berke, Satya Atluri
and many others who can look with me back the long way over
the years during which Computational Mechanics began, to
all of you, I thank you for your presence and support. I
give the USACM my most sincere thanks for this singular
honor. Computational Mechanics began as a dim idea---clumsy
words---tossed around naively in circles by rank beginners
in a subject who had only the faintest inkling of what the
subject might mean over 30 years or more of research and
development.
I am
grateful that I have been a small part of the development
of Computational Mechanics,
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as a discipline, that has and will continue to have
a profound impact on science and technology,
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as a viable component of theoretical and applied mechanics
and of the broader fields of computational science,
and
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as a society, a national and an international association
conceived with the conviction that this discipline is
important enough to man's welfare that it deserves nurturing,
support, promotion, and encouragement.
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For
a group of the size and quality of this to be here in a
meeting on computational methods would have been hard to
imagine in the early days of computational mechanics. Some
myths were relevent then took time to die. To mention two:
- Myth
1. "Significant advances in computer modeling will only
depend upon advances in computing machines; the methods,
algorithms, and software issues are secondary to the development
of faster and more efficient computers".
As
shortsighted as this notion is, it prevailed in many
prestigious agencies and institutions for many years
and its remnants can still be found among the cobwebs
in the minds of some in high places.
- Myth
2. "All that is needed to produce good computer simulations
is sound physics: good mechanics produces good models
and mechanics alone is sufficient to design reliable numerical
methods".
As silly
as this notion is, it is still banted about by those who
wish to minimize the role of numerical analysis, computer
science and any careful and rigorous approach to computer
modeling that would fall outside the narrow realm of their
personal experiences.
John
von Neumann would not agree with that notion. Theodore von
Karman, who directed von Neumann into a technical career
in engineering prior to his triumphs as a mathematician,
would not agree with that notion either. On many occasions
he asserted that practical engineers are those who perpetuate
the mistakes of their predecessors.
No:
computational mechanics is an applied science that has its
own standards anddogma. It rests on the intersection of
mechanics and physics, engineering, of numerical analysis
and applied mathematics, and of computer sciences and it
strives to resolve the mathematical models of nature by
computation methods and devices.
To paraphrase
a passage I wrote a few years ago, I ask the question:
- "What
is it that engineers and scientists do that is responsible
for the great advances in technology that we enjoy today---in
communication, transportation, medicine, ---etc.? One
answer is that they model nature. They develop mathematical
abstr actions of natural phenomena and use them to study
and predict the way things will behave."
- John
von Neumann said "The sciences do not try to explain,
they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models.
By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with
the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes
observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical
construct is solely and precisely that it is expected
to work."
- What
does "work"- mean? By trial and error we have determined
that those models that work are based on sound physical
and mathematics principles gradually wrested from centuries
of research. Most of them are characterized by complex
partial differential and integral equations that until
the advent of computers stood well outside the reach of
the engineering and scientific communities. The disc ipline
concerned with the use of computer methods and devices
to study these models in computational mechanics.
Incidentally,
we should not get too concerned about the term mechanics.
Computational Mechanics is anything of interest to people
in USACM---be it semiconductor physics, plamas, electromagnetic
field theory, optics, etc. All is all fair game, because
all involve in some sense the study of the behavior of particles,
bodies, or continuous media under the action of forces---which
is mechanics.
Now
about John von Neumann.
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First, I believe he is an appropriate figure to honor
in USACM. Though born in Budapest, he became a loyal,
patriotic, flag-waving, and truly devoted American,
very much caught up in the scientific rush of World
War II and the atomic policies of the U.S. in that era.
He was, in fact, a Commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission at the time of his untimely death.
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He was recipient of The Presidential Medal of Merit
and U.S. Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award.
He was a member of the Chair Scientific Advisory Board
of the U.S. Air Force Weapons Committee and General
Advisory Committee to the President of the United States
of America.
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Of course, he is considered the father of modern computing.
The von Neumann architecture for computer design, including
the JOHNNIAC computer project at Princeton in 1951,
stood as a pioneering contribution to early comuter
science and technology.
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He was a computational mechanician of sorts, designing
and using the first primitive computers, developing
numerical algorithm for hydrodynamics calculations,
and working on the underlying mathematics. He was a
top theoretical mathematician as well, with fundamental
contributions to the theory of games, graph theory and
linear operator theory.
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He was, on top of all this, one of the greatest intellects
of the 20th century. His mental capabilities were observed
to be superhuman, with extraordinary mental aptitudes
described by Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner as ``one whose
mind gave me the impression of a perfect instrument
whose gears were machined to mesh accurately to a thousandth
of an inch". Many thought of him a higher stage in human
development, further evolved through the rest of mankind.
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I realize
that this medal in no way is intended to compare me with
John von Neumann, but merely to recognize that USACM wishes
to remember what his contributions meant to scientific computing
and to pat on the back one of its own for attempting, however,
meagerly and imperfectly to perpetual those ideals.
For
whatever I have done to deserve this recognition, I have
many many to thank. My wife and parents, my mother and my
children who regrettably could not be here tonight, for
their support and many sacrifices that permitted me to work
on computational mechanics. And also to my students, many
of whom taught me as much as I taught them. Among these
here are J. N. Reddy, Noboru Kikuchi, and Olivier Jacquotte;
Roshdy Barsoum and G. Yagawa, post docs of many years ago,
Wyotek Tworzydlo, Manas Deb just now beginning, and many
others that I cannot take time to name.
I am
greatly honored by this award.
I will
cherish it forever and strive to be a worthy recipient of
the John von Neumann medal.
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