Frederick Nelson (1932 – January 7, 2009) was professor

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of mechanical engineering at

Tufts University School of Engineering The School of Engineering is one of the ten schools that comprise Tufts University. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in several engineering disciplines and computer science fields. Along with the School of Arts and Sciences ...

Medford, Massachusetts Medford is a city northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus alo ...

, USA. His areas of professional interest included

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

vibration Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...

, shock (mechanics) and rotordynamics. He wrote or co-authored more than 50 articles in professional publications. He wrote a monograph entitled ''An Introduction to Rotordynamics'' which was published posthumously by

SAVIAC The Shock and Vibration Information Analysis Center (SAVIAC) is a U.S. Government organization established by the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research on 20 December 1946. SAVIAC's purpose is to promulgate information on the transient and vibratory r ...

. Professor Nelson graduated from the Tufts College of Engineering in 1954 and received his Ph.D. in applied mechanics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1961. He joined the Tufts faculty in 1955. He was Dean of the College of Engineering from 1980 to 1994. Professor Nelson was a Fellow of the

Acoustical Society of America The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is an international scientific society founded in 1929 dedicated to generating, disseminating and promoting the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications. The Society is primarily a voluntary orga ...

, a Fellow of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

, a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, and a past associate editor of Applied Mechanics Review.

References

Selected publications

* "A Review of the Origins and Current Status of Rotor Dynamics" presented at IFToMM 2002, Sydney, Australia. * "A Review of Vibration Control Methods" with D.S. Nokes, presented at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Vibration Institute, Pittsburgh, PA. * "Rotor Dynamics: Critical Speeds", published in Sound and Vibration, May 2002. * "Rotor Dynamics: Instabilities" published in Sound and Vibration, September 2002. * "A Brief History of Early Rotor Dynamics" published in Sound and Vibration, June 2003. * "Rotordynamics without Equations" published in International Journal of COMADEM, vol. 10, no. 3, July 2007, ISSN 1363-7681.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Frederick 1932 births Tufts University School of Engineering alumni Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni Tufts University faculty American mechanical engineers 2009 deaths Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Acoustical Society of America 20th-century American engineers