| Prof. Zhong Wanxie, famous scientist of engineering mechanics and computational mechanics, was born in Shanghai in February, 1934. He graduated from Tong Ji University in 1956. He is now an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and honorary professor of Cardiff University, UK. Prof. Zhong was the first chairman of the Chinese Association for Computational Mechanics, and also the member of the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM) Executive Council. Prof. Zhong's academic interests cover a wide range. He has made a variety of outstanding achievements in engineering mechanics and computational mechanics. In 1960s, Prof. Zhong discovered certain structure forms that resulted in the instability of submarine pressure-tight bits and column bond shells. In early 1970s, he led several young scholars to promote the applications of computational mechanics in China. The programs they developed, such as JIGFEX, DDJ, GCAD etc., were used to solve many important engineering projects. In 1980s, Prof. Zhong established a new upper- and lower-bound theorem for the limit analysis of plasticity. Then, enlightened by the optimum control theory, he proposed the parametrical variational principle. These achievements have been used in many fields such as elasto-plastic contact analysis, soil mechanics; and many difficult problems were thus solved for the first time. In 1990s, Prof. Zhong discovered the analogy relationship between the linear quadratic optimal control theory and the sub-structure theory in structural mechanics. This discovery promoted the inter-disciplinary research in both fields. Meanwhile, he established the precise integration methodology for initial value and boundary value problems, which gives precise solution up to more than ten digits on computers. This numerical scheme has been widely used to solve various problems precisely and effectively, including vibration, control, wave propagation and gyroscopic systems. Then, by introducing the optimal control theory and the Hamiltonian theory to the theory of elasticity, Prof. Zhong initiated the application of symplectic mathematics in applied mechanics, which is regarded as an innovative methodology system. Recently, he pushes forward the research of analytical mechanics to a new stage - analytical structural mechanics. Up to now, he has published more than 300 papers and 14 monographs in Chinese or English. Prof. Zhong has won a great deal of important awards, including the National Natural Science Awards in 1982 and 1991, the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM) Fellow Award in 1998. In 2001, he received the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Award in recognition of his distinguished contribution towards scientific progress; and the National Model Teacher Award for his devotion to the career of education. |
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