Miklós Imre Hetényi (5 November 1906 – 31 October 1984) was a Hungarian-American engineer. He was a professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and held numerous service roles in the Society for Experimental Stress Analysis (SESA) (now the

Society for Experimental Mechanics Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) is a professional organization for engineers and scientists studying the design and implementation of experiments to characterize materials, structures, and systems. Formed in 1943 as the Society for Experim ...

) including as the second President of the society from 1944 to 1945. His parents were Géza Hetényi and Etelka Jakab (1864–1956). He died at his desk at home on the Stanford campus while working on a structural mechanics book.

Education

Hetényi obtained a degree in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

from the

Budapest University of Technology and Economics The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is a public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country and is considered ...

in 1931. He pursued graduate work with Harold M. Westerguard at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

from 1934 to 1935, and obtained a Ph.D. in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1936, supervised by

Stephen Timoshenko Stepan Prokopovich Timoshenko (, ; , ; – May 29, 1972), later known as Stephen Timoshenko, was a Ukrainian and later an American engineer and academician. He is considered to be the father of modern engineering mechanics. An inventor an ...

. It is said he was one of Timoshenko's favorite students and that he worked closely with Ray Mindlin and Dan Drucker on experimental work.

Research and career

The year following his PhD at the University of Michigan he began working in the research laboratories of

Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...

, where he remained until 1946, when he became a professor at the Institute of Technology at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. In 1962 he went to

, where he formed a new Experimental Stress Analysis Laboratory and continued to teach until his retirement in 1972. He was chair of the Stanford Applied Mechanics Department from 1965 to 1969. He made seminal contributions to the field of mechanics including three-dimensional

photoelasticity In materials science, photoelasticity describes changes in the optical properties of a material under mechanical deformation. It is a property of all dielectric media and is often used to experimentally determine the stress distribution in a ...

, the Reduction Method for the analysis of continuous frames and the Method of Initial Parameters. He was the second President of the Society for Experimental Stress Analysis (SESA) (now

) from 1944 to 1945. He is considered one of the four founding members of the society along with Charles Lipson, Raymond D. Mindlin and William M. Murray. SESA initiated the Hetényi Award in his honor in 1967 for the best research paper published in Experimental Mechanics. Hetényi gave the Murray Lecture in 1954 and was named the second Honorary Member of the Society in 1956, a position held until his death in 1984. When SESA introduced the rank of Fellow, Hetényi was among the first class of SESA Fellows in 1975 along with the seven other living Honorary Members of the society. Was also active in American Society of Mechanical Engineering where he chaired the Applied Mechanics Division in 1957 and was named a Honorary Member in 1973. He received honorary degrees from the University of Technical Sciences at Budapest and the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

Awards and recognition

* SEM Murray Lecture and Award (1954) * SEM Honorary Member (1956 to 1984) * SEM/SESA Founder Award (1969) * SEM Fellow (1975) *

ASME 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 edu ...

Honorary Member (1973)

Translation

This article is based in part or in whole on a translation of this

version Version may refer to: Computing * Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program * VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS Music * Cover version * Dub version * Remix * ''V ...

of the Portuguese Wikipedia and this

of the Hungarian Wikipedia article Miklós Hetényi. The editors of the original article are listed in its page history. This indication merely indicates the origin of the wording and does not serve as a source for the information in this article.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hetenyi, Miklos 1906 births 1984 deaths American engineers University of Michigan alumni University of Illinois alumni Budapest University of Technology and Economics alumni Stanford University faculty Fellows of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Hungarian emigrants to the United States