Professor Wolfgang Knauss, of the California Institute of Technology, is selected to receive the 2010 Timoshenko Medal.

I am writing on behalf of the Timoshenko Medal Committee: Zhigang Suo (Chair), Tayfun E. Tezduyar, Ares J. Rosakis, Kenneth M. Liechti, Lawrence A. Bergman, Daniel J. Inman, Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar, Thomas N. Farris, Wing Kam Liu, Mary C. Boyce, Sia Nemat-Nasser, Thomas Hughes, Ken Johnson, Grigory Barenblatt, Morton Gurtin.

The Timoshenko Medal was established in 1957 and is conferred in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of applied mechanics. Instituted by the Applied Mechanics Division, it honors Stephen P. Timoshenko, world-renowned authority in the field, and it commemorates his contributions as author and teacher.

Professor Knauss is selected to receive the 2010 Timoshenko Medal for fundamental contributions to the mechanics of fracture, covering mixed-mode fracture, dynamic fracture, and interface and adhesive fracture; and the characterization of material response and failure at the microscale, with an emphasis on experimental mechanics.

The Medal will be presented at the Applied Mechanics Banquet, tentatively scheduled on Tuesday, 16 November 2010, during the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, to be held inVancouver,Canada, 12-18 November 2010.

As a part of a tradition, toward the end of the Applied Mechanics Banquet, the Timoshenko medalist of the year will deliver a speech upon receiving the Medal. Taken together, these speeches provide a long perspective of our field, as well as capsules of the lives of extraordinary mechanicians. Here are texts of the speeches by the past Timoshenko Medalists.

Please join us at the Applied Mechanics Banquet, inVancouver, to congratulate Professor Wolfgang Knauss.