UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 32, Page 7
May 21, 1992
Jack R. Vinson named to national engineering society

     Jack R. Vinson, H. Fletcher Brown Professor of Mechanical
Engineering, was recently elected a fellow of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Only a very small percentage of the more
than 90,000 members of ASME are chosen for this honor. Provost R.
Byron Pipes is the only other University faculty member to receive
this recognition.
     Vinson's research is in the use of composite materials in
aeronautics and other applications. Composite materials, made of
synthetic fibers embedded in a matrix material, are lightweight and
strong and are increasingly used in the aerospace, automotive and
sports equipment industries, as well as for bone implants in the
medical field.
     A graduate of Cornell University, followed by a year of study at
Cambridge University as a Rotary International Fellow, Vinson received
his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the
Delaware faculty in 1964, after a career as an industrial engineer and
consultant.
     At the University, he has served as the first director of the
Center for Composite Materials, as chairperson of the then mechanical
engineering and aerospace department for 14 years and as associate
dean of engineering for development.
     An active member of ASME, Vinson has chaired its National
Structures and Materials Committee for two separate terms and has
chaired its Aerospace Division.
     Vinson also is an associate fellow of the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and served as associate editor of
the AIAA Journal. In 1977, he was the recipient of the AIAA-Office of
Naval Research national award in structural mechanics.
     He is a founding member of the American Society for Composites, a
member of the Japan Society for Composite Materials and organized and
chaired four United States-Japan conferences on composite materials.
In 1985, he received a fellowship from the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science for research at the University of Tokyo.
     Since 1969 he has taught composite materials at the University,
one of the first courses in this field offered in the United States.
He has given the course at several other places, including Argentina
where he taught the space group of the Argentine Air Force.
     Vinson has written five books, including The Behavior of
Structures Composed of Composite Materials, which is in its fourth
printing and has been translated into Japanese and Russian. His most
recent book, The Behavior of Shells of Isotropic and Composite
Materials,  is being published this year. He has written or presented
more than 100 papers and is a consultant to several firms.
     -Sue Swyers Moncure