Olgierd Cecil Zienkiewicz

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

Life

Zienkiewicz was born in England to a Polish father and an English mother. The family moved to Krakow , where the father was a judge. The outbreak of World War II prevented Zienkiewicz from starting his studies in Warsaw . The family returned to England via Italy and France and Zienkiewicz continued his education at Imperial College London . Following his studies, he embarked on an academic career in 1943 and received his doctorate in 1945 ( 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 the Northwestern University of Evanston , Illinois , before returning to the UK.

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

He was married and when he died left behind his wife and three children.

Honors

Zienkiewicz was accepted as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society in 1979, which awarded him the Royal Medal in 1990 . He was a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering , the National Academy of Engineering , the Polish and Chinese Academies of Science and the Accademia dei Lincei . He is the 1998 Tymoshenko Medalist . In 1989 he was appointed Commander (CBE) of the Order of the British Empire . In 1991 he received the gold medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers . He received the Newmark Medal of the ASCE, he received the gold medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers, in 2006 the Prince Philip Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 1987 the Carl Friedrich Gauß Medal . In 1993 he received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Vienna .

He was instrumental in founding the Association for Computational Mechanics and Engineering (ACME) in Great Britain in 1992 and was its Honorary President.

plant

Zienkiewicz devoted himself to research in the field of numerical mathematics at an early stage . In 1967 he published the volume The Finite Element Method in Structural Mechanics . This standard work ensured the rapid dissemination of FEM in engineering and is still a treasure trove for engineers and programmers today. It was followed by other editions, the sixth was published in 2005 as a three-volume work under the name The Finite Element Method . Zienkiewicz is also the first to recognize and apply the general problem-solving potential of FEM outside of solid-state mechanics.

Zienkiewicz Prize

The "Zienkiewicz Numerical Methods in Engineering Prize" was donated in 1998 by Verlag Wiley. This honors outstanding achievements by young researchers under the age of 40 every two years. The prize is endowed with £ 1,000.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituaries http://timesonline.co.uk /
  2. ^ Entry on Zienkiewicz, Olgierd Cecil in the archive of the Royal Society , London
  3. ↑ TU Wien: Honorary doctorates ( memento of the original from February 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 26, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tuwien.ac.at
  4. ^ Karl-Eugen Kurrer : Zienkiewicz, Olgierd Cecil . In: History of structural engineering. In search of balance . 2nd, greatly expanded edition. Ernst & Sohn , Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-433-03134-6 , pp. 1055-1057 .
  5. ↑ Call for Papers, The Zienkiewicz Medal and £ 1000 Prize 'International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering (NME) , 2008

literature

  • The Finite Element Method in Structural and Continuum Mechanics (with YK Cheung), McGraw Hill 1967
  • The Finite Element Method in Engineering Science , 2nd Edition, McGraw Hill 1971
    • 6th edition The finite element method in three volumes by Elsevier / Butterworth-Heinemann 2006: Volume 1 with Robert L. Taylor, Jianzhong Zhu Its Basics and Fundamentals , Volume 2 with Taylor For solid and structural mechanics , Volume 3 with Taylor, P. Nithiarasu For Fluid Mechanics
    • German edition Method of Finite Elements , 2nd edition, Hanser 1984
  • Editor Computational geomechanics: with special reference to earthquake engineering , Wiley 1999
  • with Kenneth Morgan Finite Elements and Approximations , Wiley 1983
  • Editor with GS Holister Stress analysis: recent developments in numerical and experimental methods , Wiley 1965
  • Editor with KG Stagg Rock mechanics in engineering and practice , John Wiley & Sons 1968
  • Editor Numerical methods in offshore engineering (Symposium Swansea 1977), Wiley 1978

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zienkiewicz, Olgierd Cecil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zienkiewicz, Olek Cecil (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-British mathematician and civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Caterham , England
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 2009
Place of death Swansea , Wales