ASME to Recognize Van C. Mow and Robert E. Nickell at the 2014 Honors Assembly

ASME to Recognize Van C. Mow and Robert E. Nickell at the 2014 Honors Assembly ASME to Recognize Van C. Mow and Robert E. Nickell at the 2014 Honors Assembly ASME to Recognize Van C. Mow and Robert E. Nickell at the 2014 Honors Assembly Van C. Mow This year, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers will pay tribute to eight engineering luminaries including ASME Fellow Van C. Mow, PhD, and ASME Past President Robert E. Nickell, PhD at the ASME Honors Assembly, which will be held Nov. 17 in conjunction with the 2014 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Mow, the Stanley Dicker Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Bioengineering at Columbia University, will receive the Society’s highest award: the ASME Medal. Established in 1920, the ASME Medal is conferred annually for eminently distinguished engineering achievement. Mow will be recognized for his significant contributions to biomechanical and biomedical engineering, particularly seminal breakthroughs in understanding the biomechanics of human joints; for educating and mentoring engineering students; for broad and critical leadership of the nascent bioengineering profession; and for his service to ASME. Mow has been on the faculty at Columbia University since 1986. He founded the department of biomedical engineering at Columbia and served as the inaugural chair of the department from 1995 to 2011. He also served as director of the Liu Ping Laboratory for Functional Tissue Engineering Research from 2003 to 2012. Mow has served ASME in various capacities, including associate editor of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering in 1979, and chair of the Bioengineering Division from 1984 to 1985. In 2004, the division established the Van C. Mow Medal in his honor. He received the Melville Medal in 1982, the H.R. Lissner Medal in 1987 and the Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award in 1998. Robert E. Nickell Dr. Nickell, a consultant at Applied Science Technology, will also be recognized at the ceremony. Nickell will be named an Honorary Member of the Society for his significant contributions to the development of finite element methods for assessing material fatigue in nuclear reactor pressure vessels and piping, and the development of detonation chambers for the disposal of chemical weapons. First awarded in 1880, the founding year of the Society, Honorary Membership recognizes a lifetime of service to engineering or related fields. Nickell has made significant contributions to the engineering profession throughout his nearly 50-year career. These achievements include developing finite element software for the analysis of solid propellant rocket motors and related structural systems, and conducting finite element analysis applied to fluid mechanics and dynamic buckling of structures subjected to explosive loadings. Since the late 1980s, Nickell has been consulting for the Electric Power Research Institute on technical issues related to extending the operating lifetime of commercial nuclear power plants. He also consults for the National Nuclear Security Administration on a wide variety of projects related to the technical maturity of technologies used in maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Nickell is currently providing consulting services to Kobe Steel Ltd. on the design and operation of controlled detonation chambers for the destruction of chemical weapons. An ASME Fellow, Nickell served as the Society’s 118th president in 1999-2000, as well as member of the Board of Governors from 1992 to 1994, and ASME’s secretary/treasurer from 2001 to 2004. The past chair of the Pressure Vessels and Piping Division’s Executive Committee and a number of other Society boards, councils and committees, Nickell is currently serving his third term as chair of the ASME Pension Plan Trustees. Nickell, who was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2007, has also been involved in various Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code activities during the past 40 years. The ASME Foundation is the proud supporter of the ASME Honors and Awards program through the management of award endowment funds set up by individuals, corporations or groups. For more information on the 2014 Honors Assembly and all of this year’s award recipients, visit www.asmeconferences.org/Congress2014/Honors.cfm.