Zdenek Bazant to Receive Timoshenko Medal

June 29, 2009

Zdeněk P. Bažant, McCormick Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, will be awarded the prestigious Timoshenko Medal by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Bažant discovered the non-statistical (energetic) size effect on the strength structures consisting of brittle heterogeneous materials such as concrete, fiber composites, tough ceramics, rock, sea ice, rigid foams, and many materials on approach to nano-scale. He formulated a simple size effect law used for structural design and material characterization. He is known as a world leader in the research on scaling in solid mechanics.

The Timoshenko Medal was established in 1957 and is conferred in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of theoretical mechanics. Instituted by the Applied Mechanics Division, it honors Stephen P. Timoshenko, world-renowned authority in the field, and it commemorates his contributions as author and teacher.

Bažant has already been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome), the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Academy of Czech Republic, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Academia di Scienze e Lettere (Milan). He has also received six honorary doctorates from universities in Boulder, Prague, Karlsruhe, Milan, Lyon, and Vienna.

Bažant will receive the medal at the dinner of the Applied Mechanics Division on Nov. 17.

Previous Timoshenko Medal winners include Ted Belytschko, Walter P. Murphy Professor and McCormick Professor of mechanical engineering, in 2001 and Jan Achenbach, Walter P. Murphy and Distinguished McCormick School Professor of civil and environmental engineering, in 1992.