Olgierd Zienkiewicz

shock

Name            Olgierd Zienkiewicz
Nationality     British
Birth date      18 May 1921
Birth place     Caterham, UK
Date of death   2 January 2009
Place of death  Swansea, UK

Olgierd Cecil Zienkiewicz, CBE, FREng, FRS (born 18 May 1921 in Caterham, En
gland) is a British academic, mathematician, and mechanical engineer. He is
one of the early pioneers of the finite element method. Since his first pape
r in 1947 dealing with numerical approximation to the stress analysis of dam
s, he has published nearly 600 papers and written or edited more than 25 boo
ks.

Zienkiewicz is notable for having recognized the general potential for using
the finite element method to resolve problems in areas outside the area of
solid mechanics. The idea behind finite elements design is to develop tools
based in computational mechanics schemes that can be useful to designers, no
t solely for research purposes. His books on the Finite Element Method were
the first to present the subject and to this day remain the standard referen
ce texts. He also founded the first journal dealing with computational mecha
nics in 1968 (International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering), wh
ich is still the major journal for the field of Numerical Computations.[2]

The international range of Zienkiewicz' academic experiences has been geogra
phically diverse. He is today Professor Emeritus at the University of Wales, Swansea;
and other teaching positions have included:

International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering at CIMNE, Barcelon
a, Spain -- Professor of Numerical Methods in Engineering

Technical University of Catalunya at Barcelona, Spain -- UNESCO Chair of Num
erical Methods in Engineering

University of Texas, Austin -- Joe C Walter Chair of Engineering.