UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 20, Page 1
February 16, 1995
Prof. Jin Wu elected to engineering academy

     Jin Wu, H. Fletcher Brown Professor of Marine Studies and Civil
Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
This prestigious honor is among the highest professional distinctions
accorded an engineer, recognizing those who have made important
contributions to engineering theory and practice, including
significant contributions to the literature, and those who have
demonstrated unusual accomplishment in the pioneering of new and
developing fields of technology. Wu is one of 77 engineers and eight
foreign associates elected this year to the academy.
     "We are very proud of Dr. Wu and congratulate him on yet another
outstanding achievement," Carolyn A. Thoroughgood, dean of the College
of Marine Studies, said. "Election to the National Academy of
Engineering is a tremendous honor, one that reflects Dr. Wu's
exemplary accomplishments in research at the air-sea interface and its
importance to the environment."
     A native of mainland China, Wu earned his bachelor's degree in
engineering from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and his
master's and doctoral degrees in mechanics and hydraulics from the
University of Iowa. Afterward, he served as principal research
scientist and head of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Division at
Hydronautics Inc. In 1974, he joined the College of Marine Studies as
an associate professor of oceanography.
     Soon after, he established and was named director of the
college's Air-Sea Interaction Laboratory at the Hugh R. Sharp Campus
in Lewes. There, Wu and his research staff and students use the 42-
meter-long Wind-Wave-Current Research Facility, one of the largest
tanks in the world, to study phenomena involving physical interaction
between the ocean and the atmosphere, including bubbles, ripples,
breaking waves and marine aerosols. Knowing more about these phenomena
is necessary to link atmospheric and oceanic models, to improve
satellite remote sensing techniques, and to understand the
reverberation of sound from the ocean. Wu also has conducted research
on air-sea exchanges of momentum, heat and mass and on oceanic
microwave remote sensing.
     Wu has contributed substantially to research at the air-sea
interface, having authored more than 200 books, journal articles and
technical reports. Additionally, in 1992, he was one of two recipients
of the Ocean Science Educators Award presented by the U.S. Office of
Naval Research to recognize and support distinguished academic marine
scientists who have demonstrated success in educating doctoral and
postdoctoral students.
     This past fall, in further recognition of his scientific and
educational achievements, Wu was selected president of National Cheng
Kung University, his Taiwan alma mater, and has taken a negotiated
three-year leave of absence from the University to assume the
leadership post. Despite the rigors of the presidency, he said he
hopes to be able to devote one or two hours a day to his research.
     "Election to the academy is a great honor," Wu said. "It both
heightens my enjoyment in research and reminds me of how much more
work is left to be done. I grew up in China and pursued my graduate
education and career in engineering in the United States. This honor
proves again that America is indeed a land of opportunity."