Wing Kam Liu Awarded Prestigious Gauss-Newton Medal

Wing Kam Liu, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, has been awarded the 2012 Gauss-Newton Medal, the highest award given by the International Association for Computational Mechanics.

This marks the second time a McCormick faculty member has won this honor: Ted Belytschko, Walter P. Murphy Professor and McCormick Professor of Mechanical Engineering, won the award in 2002.

The Gauss-Newton Medal honors individuals who have made outstanding, sustained contributions in the field of computational mechanics. The bronze medal carries the images of Isaac Newton and Carl Friedrich Gauss in recognition of the synergy between mathematics, numerical analysis, and mathematical modeling of physical events that underpin much of the broad field of computational mechanics.

Liu is founding director of the NSF Summer Institute on Nano Mechanics and Materials, founding chairman of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers NanoEngineering Council, and co-founding director of the Northwestern University Predictive Science and Engineering Design Program.

As a world leader in multiscale simulation-based engineering and science, Liu has applied a spectrum of atomistic, quantum, and continuum strategies toward the understanding and design of nano-materials, biological processes, and recently the use of organic and inorganic materials for drug delivery devices, bio-sensing, and other diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Liu’s previous honors include the 2009 ASME Dedicated Service Award, the Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award, the Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, the Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal, and the Melville Medal, all from ASME; the John von Neumann Medal and the Computational Structural Mechanics Award from the U.S. Association of Computational Mechanics; and the Computational Mechanics Awards of the International Association of Computational Mechanics and the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers.