Alan Needleman

Alan Needleman ( born September 2, 1944 in Philadelphia ) is an American engineer scientist.

Needleman studied at the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in 1966 and from Harvard University with a master's degree in 1967 and his doctorate at John W. Hutchinson 1970. Afterwards he was instructor and assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in 1975 professor of Applied Mechanics at Brown University, where he was from 1988 to 1991 dean of the engineering faculty. From 2009 he was professor of materials science and mechanics at the University of North Texas.

It deals with the numerical modeling of deformation and cracking especially in metals and here the connection with the microscopic structure.

In 2011 he received the Timoshenko Medal, in 2006 received the William Prager Medal and the Medal printer. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the Danish Centre for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics. He is an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark. In 1977 he was Guggenheim Fellow.