- Email: [email protected]
Obituary - John Dundurs
Mechanics Research Communications 78 (2016) iii
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Mechanics Research Communications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mechrescom
JOHN DUNDURS: 1922 – 2016 John Dundurs, a leader in the stress analysis and deformation of elastic bodies under loading and for elasticity analyses that have large consequences to the field of materials science, especially problems of dislocations and inhomogeneities, died on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. John, Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was 94 years old. John is survived by his wife, Valda, three children, Nora Dundurs, Renate (Cormac) Daly, Ilse (Kevin) Kellow, and his grandchildren Conor, Brendan and Isabelle Daly, Amanda, Emily and Cole Kellow. John Dundurs (Jânis Valdemârs Dundurs on his birth certificate) was born in Riga, Latvia on September 13, 1922. He studied at the Universities of Latvia, Dresden, and Stuttgart, before coming to the United States where he enrolled in Northwestern University, receiving a B.S.M.E. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1958 under Miklós Hetényi. He long served on the Northwestern faculty, retiring in 1994. All his further research and pedagogical activities have been connected with this university, where, after having received his doctorate, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, advancing to Professor of Civil Engineering in 1966. The research accomplishments of John Dundurs were truly singular. He has published over 150 research papers in archival journals, including over 35 in the ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics. The research of John Dundurs has been in the classical theory of elasticity, singular stress fields, cracks, and dislocations. His results in these areas are also classical. The Dundurs constants ␣ and  serve as a base for calculating joints of two solids and are universally accepted, although sometimes without attribution. At the Soviet-American Symposium on the problems of fracture of composite materials, held in Riga in 1978, Professor Dundurs presented a remarkable study on the propagation of a crack along the interface between two elastic solids. These results are of fundamental importance and are widely used in the mechanics of composites. Prior to this, a “symposium in Honor of John Dundurs” was held at the ASME 1988 Winter Annual Meeting. He received the von Karman Award from ASCE in 1990, the Nowinski Lectureship in 1994, the American Academy of Mechanics Outstanding Service Award in 2003, and was named Honorary Member of ASME in 2000. A special issue of the International Journal of Solids and Structures was published in his honor in 1995. An acknowledgment to his research accomplishments was given during special sessions at the 12th U.S. National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, June 28-30, 1994. This symposium went under the title, “Multiphase Elasticity and the Dundurs’ Parameters,” and it is rare and unusual for an individual to be honored by name in this way by a symposium at a U.S. National Congress. Some of his specific research accomplishments are the following: •
•
New Green’s functions for two-phase materials which enabled developments in dislocation theory of metals, kernels for boundary element integrals and study of interactions in material systems with interfaces and inhomogeneities. The dependence of stress on Poisson’s ratio, which permits calculation of stresses by simple interpolation of values if they are known for two specific values of this ratio.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0093-6413(16)30304-4 0093-6413/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
•
•
•
Discovery of the now-called Dundurs’ composite material constants that reduce the dependence of bimaterial problems from three to two material parameters. This allows clear illustration and categorization of behavior and have been adopted world-wide as a de facto standard. A classification for elastic bodies in mutual contact which provides a mathematically sharp distinction between problems involving “receding” and “advancing” contact. Discoveries of oscillating singularities in fracture mechanics, separations at interfaces in the presence of waves and, recently, solutions to composite material problems containing rigid reinforcement (coined anticracks by Dundurs).
In the area of teaching John Dundurs achieved renown by students and faculty for excellence in teaching at Northwestern University due to his meticulous, well-crafted lectures peppered with lucid explanations and illustrations. He has received the following awards for teaching: In 1981 students and alumni voted John Dundurs “The Technological Institute Award” for outstanding undergraduate teaching. As a toast to his research and teaching, John Dundurs was the guest of honor at “The Northwestern Alumni dinner: A Tribute to Professor John Dundurs” held in Chicago in 1988. In 1989 the Northwestern Review selected John Dundurs as one of the ten best professors at Northwestern University. John Dundurs has been advisor for numerous students who are now at universities, national laboratories and in industry. In addition to his own students, John Dundurs was a constant supporter of young researchers. To name several who were not his students: Iwona Jasuik (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), J. Barber (University of Michigan) and X. Markenscoff (University of California - San Diego). In addition, he has served as: Editor: Mechanics, Journal of the American Academy of Mechanics; Chairman, Executive Committee, Engineering Mechanics Division of ASCE, Associate Editor of the ASME J. of Applied Mechanics, ASCE J. of Engineering Mechanics, J. of Composite Materials, J. of Elasticity, Advances in the Mechanics and Physics of Surfaces and Acta Mechanica. His colleagues held John in high regard for both his intellectual prowess and his wit, and he could be called a legendary teacher and researcher of elasticity. His tastes were of the highest quality, and he always seemed to have the right comment for every occasion. He loved his research, which he considered his hobby and his work. Although retiring in 1994, his last paper was published with Markenscoff in 2014.
Leon Keer Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus Northwestern University Xanthippi Markenscoff University of California – San Diego
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Mechanics Research Communications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mechrescom
JOHN DUNDURS: 1922 – 2016 John Dundurs, a leader in the stress analysis and deformation of elastic bodies under loading and for elasticity analyses that have large consequences to the field of materials science, especially problems of dislocations and inhomogeneities, died on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. John, Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was 94 years old. John is survived by his wife, Valda, three children, Nora Dundurs, Renate (Cormac) Daly, Ilse (Kevin) Kellow, and his grandchildren Conor, Brendan and Isabelle Daly, Amanda, Emily and Cole Kellow. John Dundurs (Jânis Valdemârs Dundurs on his birth certificate) was born in Riga, Latvia on September 13, 1922. He studied at the Universities of Latvia, Dresden, and Stuttgart, before coming to the United States where he enrolled in Northwestern University, receiving a B.S.M.E. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1958 under Miklós Hetényi. He long served on the Northwestern faculty, retiring in 1994. All his further research and pedagogical activities have been connected with this university, where, after having received his doctorate, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, advancing to Professor of Civil Engineering in 1966. The research accomplishments of John Dundurs were truly singular. He has published over 150 research papers in archival journals, including over 35 in the ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics. The research of John Dundurs has been in the classical theory of elasticity, singular stress fields, cracks, and dislocations. His results in these areas are also classical. The Dundurs constants ␣ and  serve as a base for calculating joints of two solids and are universally accepted, although sometimes without attribution. At the Soviet-American Symposium on the problems of fracture of composite materials, held in Riga in 1978, Professor Dundurs presented a remarkable study on the propagation of a crack along the interface between two elastic solids. These results are of fundamental importance and are widely used in the mechanics of composites. Prior to this, a “symposium in Honor of John Dundurs” was held at the ASME 1988 Winter Annual Meeting. He received the von Karman Award from ASCE in 1990, the Nowinski Lectureship in 1994, the American Academy of Mechanics Outstanding Service Award in 2003, and was named Honorary Member of ASME in 2000. A special issue of the International Journal of Solids and Structures was published in his honor in 1995. An acknowledgment to his research accomplishments was given during special sessions at the 12th U.S. National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, June 28-30, 1994. This symposium went under the title, “Multiphase Elasticity and the Dundurs’ Parameters,” and it is rare and unusual for an individual to be honored by name in this way by a symposium at a U.S. National Congress. Some of his specific research accomplishments are the following: •
•
New Green’s functions for two-phase materials which enabled developments in dislocation theory of metals, kernels for boundary element integrals and study of interactions in material systems with interfaces and inhomogeneities. The dependence of stress on Poisson’s ratio, which permits calculation of stresses by simple interpolation of values if they are known for two specific values of this ratio.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0093-6413(16)30304-4 0093-6413/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
•
•
•
Discovery of the now-called Dundurs’ composite material constants that reduce the dependence of bimaterial problems from three to two material parameters. This allows clear illustration and categorization of behavior and have been adopted world-wide as a de facto standard. A classification for elastic bodies in mutual contact which provides a mathematically sharp distinction between problems involving “receding” and “advancing” contact. Discoveries of oscillating singularities in fracture mechanics, separations at interfaces in the presence of waves and, recently, solutions to composite material problems containing rigid reinforcement (coined anticracks by Dundurs).
In the area of teaching John Dundurs achieved renown by students and faculty for excellence in teaching at Northwestern University due to his meticulous, well-crafted lectures peppered with lucid explanations and illustrations. He has received the following awards for teaching: In 1981 students and alumni voted John Dundurs “The Technological Institute Award” for outstanding undergraduate teaching. As a toast to his research and teaching, John Dundurs was the guest of honor at “The Northwestern Alumni dinner: A Tribute to Professor John Dundurs” held in Chicago in 1988. In 1989 the Northwestern Review selected John Dundurs as one of the ten best professors at Northwestern University. John Dundurs has been advisor for numerous students who are now at universities, national laboratories and in industry. In addition to his own students, John Dundurs was a constant supporter of young researchers. To name several who were not his students: Iwona Jasuik (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), J. Barber (University of Michigan) and X. Markenscoff (University of California - San Diego). In addition, he has served as: Editor: Mechanics, Journal of the American Academy of Mechanics; Chairman, Executive Committee, Engineering Mechanics Division of ASCE, Associate Editor of the ASME J. of Applied Mechanics, ASCE J. of Engineering Mechanics, J. of Composite Materials, J. of Elasticity, Advances in the Mechanics and Physics of Surfaces and Acta Mechanica. His colleagues held John in high regard for both his intellectual prowess and his wit, and he could be called a legendary teacher and researcher of elasticity. His tastes were of the highest quality, and he always seemed to have the right comment for every occasion. He loved his research, which he considered his hobby and his work. Although retiring in 1994, his last paper was published with Markenscoff in 2014.
Leon Keer Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus Northwestern University Xanthippi Markenscoff University of California – San Diego