Announcements

We are pleased to announce that Mr. Peter O’Donnell, Jr. and Dr. Tinsley Oden have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for their outstanding contributions to their profession, the nation, and the world. The Academy honors distinguished scientists, scholars, and leaders in public affairs, business, administration, and the arts. The purpose of the Academy is “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”

The Academy has numbered among its members the finest minds in each successive generation: eighteenth century — John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Thompson; nineteenth century — Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Darwin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William and Henry James, Daniel Webster. Fellows over the past century have been — Ansel Adams, Marian Anderson, Hannah Arendt, Aaron Copland, Albert Einstein, John Kenneth Galbraith, Charles Hutchins, Barbara McClintock, Martin Luther King, Jr., Margaret Mead, Lionel Trilling, and Woodrow Wilson. Winston Churchill, Henri Cartier–Bresson, T .S. Eliot, Iawaharlal Nehru, Albert Schweitzer were Foreign Honorary Members of the Academy. The members represent innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including over two hundred and fifty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.

Mr. O’Donnell and Dr. Oden will be inducted at the House of the Academy on October 11, 2008.

On behalf of ICES, congratulations to Mr. O’Donnell and Dr. Oden.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Tom Hughes has received the JSCES Grand Prize of the Japan Society for Computational Engineering and Science. It is the highest award of the society and he is the first recipient.

Congratulations on behalf of ICES!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Mary Wheeler has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by the Colorado School of Mines Board of Trustees for her contributions to the curriculum and research of their institution. Dr. Wheeler will receive this award during the commencement ceremony on May 9, 2008. Congratulations, Dr. Wheeler!

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and The University of Texas at Austin today announced a research and educational partnership in computational earth sciences and engineering. Dr. Omar Ghattas will be the Director of the new Academic Excellence Alliance (AEA) between ICES and KAUST. Read More

Dr. Chandra Bajaj has been invited to serve as a member of the Macromolecular Structure and Function D Study Section, Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health for his demonstrated competence and achievement in the scientific discpline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journal and other significant scientific activies, achievements and honors. Congratulations on behalf of ICES.

Dr. Thomas Hughes received an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Padua in Italy on November 20th, 2007. The ceremony was held in the Aula Magna of the Palazzo Bo, a room in which Galileo Galilei used to teach.

Dr. Thomas Hughes recently delivered the Newmark Distinguished Lecture on Isogeometric Analysis at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Nathan M. Newmark was an internationally renown engineer in the areas of structural and geotechnical engineering. This very prestigious lecture is presented only once a year.

Dr. Thomas Hughes has been elected a Foreign Member of the “Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere” in the section of Mathematics. It is a great honor for a foreigner to be elected to this academy. This is a prestigious Italian academy instituted by Napoleon. Congratulations to Dr. Hughes on behalf of ICES.

Istituto Lombardo website: http://www.istitutolombardo.it/

Congratulations to Dr. Bill Press on the recently published third edition of his book
“Numerical Recipes.”

Two of our CAM students, David Fuentes and Scott Lipton were honored in the student presentation competition at the 9th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics held July 2007 in California. Congratulations on behalf of ICES!

David Fuentes was an award finalist in the "Biotechnology" category for his presentation entitled, "A Data Driven Application System for Laser Treatment of Cancer." His adviser is Professor J. Tinsley Oden.

Scott Lipton's was awarded first place in the category of "Integration of Computational Mechanics with Manufacturing" for his presentation entitled, "T-splines and Isogeometric Analysis: Analysis." His advisers are Professor Thomas Hughes and Professor Omar Ghattas.

Dr. Ron Elber has been invited to serve as a member of the Macromolecular Structure and Function D Study Section for the Center for Scientific Review, NIH.

“Members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors.” Congratulations to Dr. Elber on behalf of ICES.

Dr. Yusheng Feng has been selected to receive an NIH Career Development Award (NIH Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award). This award is a coveted and distinguished award that is highly competitive and given to individuals who wish to redirect their research to topics within the mission of NIH. Dr. Feng intends to use his background in modeling simulation and computer imaging to develop new approaches to biological and medical problems. Congratulations, Dr. Feng!

Dr. Thomas J.R. Hughes has been selected to receive the 2007 Timoshenko Medal “for pioneering contributions to computational mechanics, particularly nonlinear finite element methods for solids and fluids.” The award consists of $1,000 honorarium, a bronze medal and a certificate. The award will be presented at the Applied Mechanics Dinner during the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in November 2007 in Seattle.

Pearl Flath, a Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAM) student, appeared in the latest issue of SIAM news. In February, Pearl attended the 2007 SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering held in Costa Mesa, California and was featured for being the founder of several student chapters of SIAM. Congratulations! For more information, click here.

Richard Darst, an undergraduate Chemistry major and an ICES undergraduate research assistant in Peter Rossky's lab, has been awarded a very prestigious Fellowship from The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. This fellowship will provide Richard full support for up to five years of graduate studies. Only 15 students nationwide were awarded a fellowship in the areas of applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. For more information, click here. Congratulations!

Thomas J. R. Hughes will receive an honorary doctorate, Laurea Honoris Causa in Civil Engineering, in recognition of his fundamental work in computational mechanics in solid, structural and fluid mechanics, with special emphasis to his recent work in turbulent flows, stabilized and multiscale methods as well as Isogeometric Analysis. The ceremony will take place in Pavia University in September. Congratulations!

Ron Elber, currently of Cornell University, has accepted our offer to become the holder of the W.A. "Tex" Moncrief Chair in Computational Life Sciences and Biology. Dr. Elber will also hold a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and will direct an ICES research center on the fourth floor of the ACES buildin. Dr Elber will begin his work at ICES in July, 2007.

Leszek Demkowicz has published a book entitled "Computing with hp-Adaptive Finite Elements, Volume 1, One and Two Dimensional Eliptic and Maxwell Problems".

Alex Demkov has been made a Fellow of the American Physical Society, "For contributions to the development of the theory of oxides and their interfaces, as applied to CMOS technology development."

ICES and the Jackson School of Geosciences will co-host the Workshop on Challenges and Opportunities at the Interfaces of Scientific Computing and Computational Geodynamics on October 16-17, 2006. The workshop, held under the auspices of the NSF-funded Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG), brings together computational geodynamicists and scientific computing experts to identify and assess challenges and opportunities at the interfaces of frontier computational geodynamics problems and scalable algorithms and software. Following the workshop, on October 18, 2006, the CIG Science Steering Committee will host a roundtable meeting to discuss CIG's software development roadmap. More information can be found on the workshop webpage (http://www.geodynamics.org/cig/workinggroups/cs/workshops).

Professor Leszek Demkowicz has been named the 2006-2007 Russell Severance Springer Visiting Professor by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The Chair carries an honorarium of $10,000 and is awarded periodically to outstanding academics working in the areas of research related to mechanical engineering. As a Springer Chair holder, Demkowicz will give seminars and a series of lectures on his research at the UC campus at Berkeley. The endowment is due to the late Russell Springer, an inventor of considerable talent, who graduated from UC-Berkeleyâs College of Mechanics in 1902, and then rose to the vice presidency of a highly successful Holt Manufacturing Company, which was subsequently purchased by Caterpillar Tractor Company.

Inaugural Lecture of the Joint ICES/TACC Distinquished Lecture Series in Petascale Computing, will be given May 23, 2006 in AVAYA auditorium and will be webcast live. more detailThe first lecture of the Joint ICES/TACC Distinquished Lecture Series in Petascale Computing, will be given May 23, 2006 in AVAYA auditorium and will be webcast live. This lecture will be presented by Professor David Keyes of Columbia University and is entitled, "Petaflops, Seriously". http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/petascale/index.php

Professor Thomas J.R. Hughes has been elected to the grade of Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "AIAA Fellows are persons of distinction who have made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics".Dr. Hughes will be recognized at the Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala which will be held in conjunction with Inside Aerospace...an International Perspective in Washington D.C. in April 2006.

Professor Mark Mear Receives Texas Exes Teaching Award. Mark Mear, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, has been selected to receive the 2006 Texas Exes Teaching Award for the College of Engineering. The purpose of these awards is to promote quality teaching at the University of Texas by publicly recognizing professors who have had a positive influence on the educational experience of university students. The awards are student nominated and student selected. Professor Mear will be presented with a $1000 check at an awards ceremony to be held in February. More

Professor Ivo Babuska inducted into the National Academy of Engineering on Oct. 9 in in Washington D.C. This induction brought the university's membership in the prestigious academy to 44, including 14 emeritus faculty.

Professor Jim Chelikowsky to receive the 2006 David Adler Lectureship Award from the American Physical Society. Professor Chelikowsky will be receiving the 2006 David Adler Lectureship Award sponsored by the Division of Materials Physics and the friends of David Adler. Professor Chelikowsky was selected by the American Physical Society "for his creative and outstanding research in computational materials physics and for his effectiveness in communicating research results through lectures and publications."