Klaus-Jürgen Bathe is a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

, professor of mechanical engineering at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, and founder of ADINA R&D, who specializes in

computational mechanics Computational mechanics is the discipline concerned with the use of computational methods to study phenomena governed by the principles of mechanics. Before the emergence of computational science (also called scientific computing) as a "third wa ...

. Bathe is considered to be one of the pioneers in the field of

finite element analysis Finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical models, mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural ...

and its applications.

Early life and education

He was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

as a second child to a lawyer who took part in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

's Eastern Front operations and to a daughter of Günther Martini, a '' Fregattenkapitän'' in the Imperial German Navy during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and by 1927 an editor with the '. Both of his parents supported

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's regime. He spent part of the war with the Martinis in Lissa (present-day

Leszno Leszno (, , ) is a historic city in western Poland, seat of Leszno County within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Leszno is a former residential cit ...

in Poland). During the final weeks of the war, he was evacuated by his mother and grandfather from Berlin to Borsum in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. After the war, his father was initially a clerk in the Federal Republic of Germany's government and subsequently a senior government councillor (') across Lower Saxony, in

Sarstedt Sarstedt () is a town in the Hildesheim (district), district of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany. It has approximately 18,500 inhabitants. Sarstedt is situated 20 km south of Hanover and 10 km north of Hildesheim. Sarstedt station is o ...

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in Lower Saxony in western Germany. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168 ...

and Oldenburg i. O. Klaus-Jürgen Bathe completed his high school education in Oldenburg. During his

hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Signaling ...

travels in 1960, he visited the Italian and

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

memorials of the Battle of El Alamein in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. In order to avoid military draft, in March 1963 he left via

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, initially to work for his grand-uncle at a farm near Gobabis in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. He earned his graduate degree in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

in 1967. Bathe received his M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

, Canada in 1969. He then studied with at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the same university in 1971 under the supervision of Ed Wilson and Ray William Clough. His thesis was on numerical solution of large

eigenvalue In linear algebra, an eigenvector ( ) or characteristic vector is a vector that has its direction unchanged (or reversed) by a given linear transformation. More precisely, an eigenvector \mathbf v of a linear transformation T is scaled by a ...

problems, where he developed the subspace iteration method.

Career

During his time as a post-doctoral fellow (1972–1974) at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, Bathe et al. developed the finite element programs SAP IV and NONSAP, which have been used by thousands of individuals and organizations in research and practice and had a major impact in advancing the finite element method. In 1974 he started the development of the

ADINA Adina may refer to: Places India * Adina Deer Park, a deer sanctuary in Malda district, West Bengal * Adina Kottige, a village in Karnataka * Adina Mosque, a ruined mosque in West Bengal Other countries * Adina, Ghana, a town in the ...

system. Soon after, he joined the department of mechanical engineering at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. In 1986, he founded ADINA R&D, Inc. On April 7, 2022,

Bentley Systems Bentley Systems, Incorporated is an American-based software development company that develops, manufactures, licenses, sells and supports computer software and services for the design, construction, and operation of infrastructure. The company' ...

acquired ADINA R&D, Inc.

Major contributions

Bathe has made fundamental contributions in the finite element analysis of structures,

heat transfer Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, ...

, field problems, CFD, and fluid-structure interactions. These contributions are widely used in commercial software codes. Specifically, the following contributions for reliable, accurate and efficient finite element analyses are widely employed: * Formulation of plate and shell finite elements (the MITC elements). * Formulations of large deformations of solids (the Total and Updated Lagrangian formulations). * Solution techniques for large eigenvalue problems (the Bathe subspace iteration method). * Solution techniques for contact problems (the constraint-function method). * Time integration schemes for the dynamic analysis of structures and fluid-structure interactions (the Bathe method). * Schemes for fully coupled fluid-structure interactions and multi-physics problems. * Mathematical analysis of finite element schemes. * The book "''Finite Element Procedures''" used as a standard reference text in academia and industry. Bathe is widely recognized to bridge the worlds of academia and industry in computational mechanics.

Honors and awards

Bathe has received many honorary doctorates from institutions around the world: Slovak Academy of Sciences and Technical University of Zilina, Slovakia; Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany; Technical University of Rzeszow, Poland; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain; University of Bucharest, Romania; University of Miskolc, Hungary; University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; University of Cape Town, South Africa; and Sorbonne Universités – Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France. Bathe has been listed as an ISI Highly Cited Author in Engineering by the ISI Web of Knowledge, Thomson Scientific Company, and has been listed in 2024 as one of the top three contributors worldwide during their lives to the development of the finite element method.

Editorial activities

Bathe served as an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Computers & Structures from 1996 to 2024 (published by Elsevier) and is now an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Machine Learning for Computational Science and Engineering. He is also the editor of the Springer's book series on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics. He has organized the twelve bi-yearly conferences "Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis and ADINA", at M.I.T., 1977–1999, and the seven bi-yearly conferences "Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics" at M.I.T., 2001–2013.

Klaus-Jürgen Bathe Leadership Program

The Klaus-Jürgen Bathe Leadership Programme was established at the

in 2014 through a gift donated by Professor Klaus-Jürgen Bathe. It is awarded annually to

students with at least 2 years of study left, from any of the six university faculties. The goal of this Program is to produce graduates coming from any faculty of the

, South Africa with outstanding leadership qualities and a strong sense of social justice, who will go on to play leading and significant roles in business, government, industry and civil society in South Africa and on the African continent.

Books

* K.J. Bathe and E.L. Wilson, ''Numerical Methods in Finite Element Analysis'', Prentice-Hall, 1976 * K.J. Bathe, ''Finite Element Procedures in Engineering Analysis'', Prentice-Hall, 1982 * K.J. Bathe, ''Finite Element Procedures'', 1st Edition, Prentice Hall, 1996; 2nd Edition, Watertown, MA: Klaus-Jürgen Bathe, 2014 * D. Chapelle and K.J. Bathe, ''The Finite Element Analysis of Shells – Fundamentals'', 1st Edition, Springer, 2003; 2nd edition, Springer, 2011 * M. Kojic and K.J. Bathe, ''Inelastic Analysis of Solids and Structures'', Springer, 2005 * K.J. Bathe, ''To Enrich Life'', Amazon.com, 2007, 2nd edition 2019 * K.J. Bathe, ''How Lawyers Think, Work & when Perhaps not Hire a Lawyer'', Amazon.com, 2021 * M.L. Bucalem, K.J. Bathe, ''The Mechanics of Solids and Structures – Hierarchical Modeling and the Finite Element Solution'', Springer, 2011

Video courses on finite element methods

* MIT Video Lectures: ''Finite Element Procedures for Solids and Structures – Linear Analysis'' * MIT Video Lectures: ''Finite Element Procedures for Solids and Structures – Nonlinear Analysis''

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Special issue on K. J. Bathe's 60th birthday anniversary, preface in Computers & Structures

Founder of ADINA R&D, Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathe, Klaus-Jurgen MIT School of Engineering faculty UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni University of Calgary alumni University of Cape Town alumni Engineers from Berlin 1943 births Living people