[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 18648]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




HONORING DR. JAN ACHENBACH OF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY ON RECEIVING THE 
                     2005 NATIONAL MEDAL OF SCIENCE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DANIEL LIPINSKI

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 11, 2007

  Mr. LIPINSKI. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor an exceptional 
professor and scientist at Northwestern University, Dr. Jan D. 
Achenbach. His seminal contributions in the area of wave propagation in 
solids and his pioneering work in quantitative non-destructive 
evaluation have earned him the 2005 National Medal of Science, the 
Nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific 
research. As a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree from 
Dr. Achenbach's Department of Mechanical Engineering, I am especially 
proud to recognize his accomplishments and thank him for his years of 
dedication in the field.
  Dr. Achenbach, who joined Northwestern in 1963, serves as the Walter 
P. Murphy Professor and Distinguished McCormick School Professor in the 
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental 
Engineering and Engineering Science, and Applied Mathematics. For more 
than 40 years, Dr. Achenbach has devoted his time and energy to the 
research of solid mechanics and quantitative nondestructive evaluation, 
making major contributions in the field of propagation of mechanical 
disturbances in solids. He has developed methods for flaw detection and 
characterization by ultrasonic scattering methods. He also has achieved 
valuable results on earthquake mechanisms, on the mechanical behavior 
of composite materials under dynamic loading conditions, and on the 
vibrations of solid propellant rockets.
  In addition, Dr. Achenbach is founder of Northwestern's Center for 
Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention, a state-of-art laboratory 
for quality control in structural mechanics, with profound impact on 
the aircraft industry, particularly the monitoring of aging aircraft.
  Dr. Achenbach was awarded the 2003 National Medal of Technology, the 
Nation's highest honor for technological innovation. He was elected a 
member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1982, a member of the 
National Academy of Sciences in 1992 and a fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994. In 1999, he was elected a 
Corresponding Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. He is also 
an honorary member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and 
a fellow of ASME, ASA, SES, AMA, and AAAS. His awards include the 
Timoshenko Medal and the William Prager Medal.
  Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Dr. Jan Achenbach 
for his tireless efforts in pioneering scientific research in 
engineering. He has done nothing less than an extraordinary job in his 
field and is truly deserving of the National Medal of Science. I 
congratulate Jan for this outstanding honor.

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