Olgierd Zienkiewicz

Olgierd " Olek " Cecil Zienkiewicz ( born May 18, 1921 in Caterham, England; † January 2, 2009 in Swansea, Wales ) was a Polish- British mathematician and engineer. He was one of the pioneers of the finite element method (FEM ), and author of the first textbook about it.

Life

Zienkiewicz was born in England, the son of a Polish father and an English mother. The family moved to Krakow, where his father performed his job as a judge. The outbreak of World War II prevented Zienkiewicz was able to resume his studies in Warsaw. About Italy and France, the family returned to England and Zienkiewicz continued his studies at Imperial College London. Following his studies he proposed in 1943 an academic career in 1945 and received his Ph.D. (Classical theories of gravity dam design in the light of modern analytical methods ). From 1947 to 1957 he taught at the University of Edinburgh in the Department of Engineering. In 1957 he went for four years as a professor of civil engineering at Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois, before returning to Britain.

He taught from 1961 until his retirement in 1988 in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Wales, Swansea Institute of Computational Engineering Methods ( Department of Civil Engineering, University of Wales Swansea, Institute of Numerical Methods Engineering ).

He was married and left at his death his wife and three children.

Honors

Zienkiewicz was as a member ( "Fellow" ) was added in 1979 to the Royal Society in 1990, the Royal Medal awarded him. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Engineering, the Polish and Chinese Academies of Sciences and the Accademia dei Lincei. He is the winner of the Timoshenko Medal of the year 1998. 1989 he was appointed Commander (CBE ) of the Order of the British Empire. In 1991 he received the Gold Medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers. He received the Medal of ASCE Newmark, he received the Gold Medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers, 2006, the Prince Philip Medal of the Royal Academy of engineering or 1987, Carl Friedrich Gauss Medal.

He was significantly involved in the founding of the Association for Computational Mechanics and Engineering ( ACME) in the UK in 1992 and whose honorary president.

Work

Zienkiewicz devoted himself at an early stage of research in the field of numerical mathematics. In 1967 he published the band The Finite Element Method in Structural Mechanics. This standard work caused a rapid spread of FEM in engineering and is still a treasure trove of engineers and programmers. He was followed by further editions, the sixth was released in 2005 as a three-volume work under the name The Finite Element Method. Zienkiewicz is also the first to have outside of Solid Mechanics recognized and applied the general problem -solving potential of the FEM.

Zienkiewicz Award

The " Zienkiewicz Numerical Methods in Engineering Prize" was founded in 1998. This biennial outstanding achievements of young researchers will be honored under 40.