Dr. Hiroshi Tada was a mechanical engineer with highly notable works in the field of

fracture mechanics Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics ...

. He was also well known as a performer of a Japanese style of top spinning known as ''koma-mawashi''.

''Koma-mawashi'' performances

Although is traditionally a children's play activity in Japan, Dr. Tada performed this art at an expert level and included in his act elements of juggling, yo-yo and magic, with some comedy thrown in. He was a regular performer at many festivals in the St. Louis, Missouri area, such as the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million ...

's Japanese Festival,

Missouri History Museum The Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, showcases Missouri history. It is operated by the Missouri Historical Society, which was founded in 1866. Museum admission is free through a public subsidy by the Metropolitan ...

's International FunFest,

Queeny Park Queeny Park is a park located in unincorporated St. Louis County, Missouri. It is one of the largest parks in the St. Louis County Parks system. Description The park contains 564-acres of forest, prairie, and riparian environment in suburban S ...

's International Folk Fest, and Tower Grove Park's Festival of Nations.

Personal and professional life

Hiroshi Tada was born in

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, Japan. He graduated from the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

and moved to the United States to obtain his PhD. He spent most of his life in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Tada was an affiliate professor of mechanical engineering at the

McKelvey School of Engineering The James McKelvey School of Engineering is a part of Washington University in St. Louis. Founded in 1854, the engineering school is a research institution occupying seven buildings on Washington University's Danforth Campus. Research emphasis ...

at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of ''Stress Analysis of Cracks Handbook''.

References

Living people Mechanical engineers Jugglers 1939 births University of Tokyo alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty {{Japan-academic-bio-stub