Awards & Winners

Jan D. Achenbach

Date of Birth 20-August-1935
Place of Birth Leeuwarden
(Netherlands, Friesland, Kingdom of the Netherlands)
Nationality United States of America
Also know as Jan Achenbach, J. D. Achenbach, Jan Drewes Achenbach
Profession Mathematician
Jan Drewes Achenbach is a professor emeritus at Northwestern University. Achenbach was born in the northern region of the Netherlands, in Leeuwarden. He studied aeronautics at Delft University of Technology, which he finished with a M.Sc. degree in 1959. Thereafter, he went to the United States, Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1962. After working for a year as a preceptor at Columbia University, he was then appointed as assistant professor at Northwestern University. Achenbach has developed methods for flaw detection and characterization by using contact transducers, imaging techniques and laser-based ultrasonics. He has also developed methods for thin-layer characterization by acoustic microscopy. Work is both analytical and experimental in nature, with extensive cooperation with investigators from other universities and from industrial organizations on theoretical experimental projects. Work in fracture mechanics has been primarily on dynamic fracture. He also carries out research on structural acoustics and on the mechanical behavior of composite materials.

Awards by Jan D. Achenbach

Check all the awards nominated and won by Jan D. Achenbach.

2005


National Medal of Science for Engineering
(For his seminal contributions to engineering research and education in the area of wave propagation in solids and for pioneering the field of quantitative non-destructive evaluation.)

2003


National Medal of Technology and Innovation
(For his seminal contributions to engineering research and education and for pioneering ultrasonic methods for the detection of cracks and corrosion in aircraft, leading to improved safety for aircraft structures.)