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Theodore Yao-Tsu Wu
2006 CTUAA-SC Lifetime Achievement Award
中文版 |
B.S. 1946, Chaio-Tung University;
M.S. 1948, Iowa State University;
Ph.D. 1952, Professor Emeritus of Engineering Science (1996-),
California Institute of Technology.
John Simon Guggenheim Fellow (1964); Australian CSIRO and
Universities Fellow (1976); Japan JSPS Fellow (1981); Member,
U.S. Academy of Engineering (1982); Member, Academia Sinica
(1984); Honorary Fellow, Institute of Mechanics (1988), and
Foreign Member, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2002); American
Physical Society Fellow and Am. Phys. Soc. 1993 Fluid Mechanics
Prize.
With his basic training in aeronautics, mathematics, and fluid
physics, Dr. Wu has taught at Caltech since his graduation and
pursued research in engineering science, a newly evolving field
that forges frontiers abridging engineering with different
branches of science. Enjoying teaching, he has been called upon
to teach undergraduate core courses and advanced graduate core
courses, for which endeavor he was accorded a Caltech
Distinguished Teaching Award. He is in full conviction that all
students can be inspired, with due stimuli, to learn how to
learn best by themselves.
In his career, Dr. Wu has shown a broad and versatile interest
in research, including flows of compressible, viscous and
heat-conducting fluids; free-streamline theory of cavities, jets
and wakes; water waves and free-surface flows, mechanics of fish
swimming and bird/insect flight; wind and ocean-current energy,
internal waves in the ocean, mathematics of nonlinear evolution
equatons, etc. With students and visiting colleagues, they
collaborated on studies of low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics,
microorganism locomotion and related biophysical phenomena. The
recent research interest of Wu's group is focused on forced
generation of nonlinear waves at resonance of soliton-bearing
systems, three-dimensional vortex dynamics, and coastal
oceanography. His new theoretical model for fully nonlinear
dispersive waves in water of variable depth is ideal for
investigating mitigation and control of such natural hazards as
tsunami, storm surge, and hurricanes. The new idea and concept,
based on devising means for active and passive control and
mitigation of devastating waves and fluid flows, may germinate
growth of a new field. Revisiting bio-physics, he has developed
a fully nonlinear lifting theory for modeling bird flying and
fish swimming. In collection, Dr. Wu has authored and
co-authored over 150 papers published in archive journals and
book chapters. His lifetime contributions have been recognized
by winning the Lifetime Achievement Awards of the 1993
Chinese-American Faculty Assoc. of So. Calif., 1995 Chinese
Engineers and Scientists Association of So. Calif., and of the
2000 No. American Chiao Tung U. Alumni Assoc.
Professionally, Dr. Wu pursues, with conviction, the goal of
enhancing academic interaction between individuals, groups,
societies and nations. This is the best road, he believes, to
promote science, disseminate knowledge and share wisdom. He is
always sincere in responding to discussions and to giving plenum
lectures at scientific meetings. He has made the U.S. Southwest
Universities Lecture Tour (1968), Chinese Academy of Science
Summer Lectures (1981), UC Berkeley Russell Springer Honorary
Professor Lectures (1981), Herbert Wagner Memorial Lecture in
Munich (1984), U.S. Midwest Universities Lecture Tour (1985),
Distinguished Willian Mong Lecture in Hong Kong (1997),
Distinguished Israel Pollack Lecture in Haifa (1999) and other
invited lectures. He has accepted appointments as Honorary
Professor in several universities abroad. He is a co-editor of
the serial of Advances in Applied Mechanics that was founded by
Theodore von Karman and Richard von Mises; he has edited scores
of books and Proceeding Volumes of international conferences he
organized. In teaching, he has guided a good number of students
to doctorate, an endeavor he has conducted with dedication,
great expectation, and pride.
Dr. Wu, married to Dr. Chinhua Shih Wu, have two grown children:
Fonda Bai-yueh and Melba Bai-chin and two grandchildren. |
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