Samuel Kelly Clark (3 November 1924- 26 October 2006) [1] was a professor in the Department of Engineering Mechanics at the University of Michigan who was known for contributions to the science of tires. His 1971 monograph Mechanics of Pneumatic Tires [2] was considered by many in the tire industry to be its most important engineering text. [3]
Clark was born and raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he graduated from Roosevelt High School, which was associated with Michigan Normal College. In 1942, he joined the U.S. Navy's V-12 Program. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant. After World War II he joined Douglas Aircraft Company as an engineer and later the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn. He completed his doctoral degree in engineering from the University of Michigan in 1952.
Clark's first academic appointment was as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Case Western Reserve University. However, in 1955, he returned to the University of Michigan in the Department of Engineering Mechanics. He continued here until his retirement in 1994 at the rank of tenured professor.
He founded the Precision Measurement Company in 1966. [4] Precision Measurement developed sensor technology that was used in tire testing.
A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which the wheel travels. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, are pneumatically inflated structures, which also provide a flexible cushion that absorbs shock as the tire rolls over rough features on the surface. Tires provide a footprint, called a contact patch, that is designed to match the weight of the vehicle with the bearing strength of the surface that it rolls over by providing a bearing pressure that will not deform the surface excessively.
Samuel Chao Chung Ting is an American physicist who, with Burton Richter, received the Nobel Prize in 1976 for discovering the subatomic J/ψ particle. More recently he has been the principal investigator in research conducted with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a device installed on the International Space Station in 2011.
Mechatronics engineering, also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering and software engineering, and also includes a combination of robotics, computer science, telecommunications, systems, control, and product engineering.
The Tire Society is a non-profit professional body, specifically an engineering society, whose mission is to increase and disseminate knowledge as it pertains to the science and technology of tires. It hosts a two-day meeting and conference every year. In addition, it publishes a peer reviewed technical journal, Tire Science and Technology.
Tire Science and Technology is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original research and reviews on experimental, analytical, and computational aspects of tires. Since 1978, the Tire Society has published the journal. The current editor-in-chief is Michael Kaliske.
Daniel Kleppner, born 1932, is the Lester Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-founder and co-director of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms. His areas of science include atomic, molecular, and optical physics, and his research interests include experimental atomic physics, laser spectroscopy, and high precision measurements.
Robert James Mair, Baron Mair, is a geotechnical engineer and Emeritus Sir Kirby Laing Professor of Civil Engineering and director of research at the University of Cambridge. He is Head of the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC). He was Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, from 2001 to 2011 and a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, from 1998 to 2001. In 2014 he was elected a vice president of the Institution of Civil Engineers and on 1 November 2017 became the Institution's president for 2017–18, its 200th anniversary year. He was appointed an independent crossbencher in the House of Lords in 2015 and is currently a member of its Select Committee on Science and Technology.
Satya Atluri is an American engineer, educator, researcher and scientist in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering and computational sciences, who is currently a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Since 1966, he made fundamental contributions to the development of finite element methods, boundary element methods, Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) methods, Fragile Points Methods (FPM), Local Variational Iteration Methods, for general problems of engineering, solid mechanics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, flexoelectricity, ferromagnetics, gradient and nonlocal theories, nonlinear dynamics, shell theories, micromechanics of materials, structural integrity and damage tolerance, Orbital mechanics, Astrodynamics, digital Twins of Aerospace Systems, etc.
Jan Drewes Achenbach was a professor emeritus at Northwestern University. Achenbach was born in the northern region of the Netherlands, in Leeuwarden. He studied aeronautics at Delft University of Technology, which he finished with a M.Sc. degree in 1959. Thereafter, he went to the United States, Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1962. After working for a year as a preceptor at Columbia University, he was then appointed as assistant professor at Northwestern University.
The Charles Goodyear Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society, Rubber Division. Established in 1941, the award is named after Charles Goodyear, the discoverer of vulcanization, and consists of a gold medal, a framed certificate and prize money. The medal honors individuals for "outstanding invention, innovation, or development which has resulted in a significant change or contribution to the nature of the rubber industry". Awardees give a lecture at an ACS Rubber Division meeting, and publish a review of their work in the society's scientific journal Rubber Chemistry and Technology.
Jywe Wen-yuh is the fifth president of National Formosa University.
Yoram Koren is an Israeli-American academic. He is the James J. Duderstadt Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Manufacturing and the Paul G. Goebel Professor Emeritus of Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Since 2014 he is a distinguished visiting professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Daniel J. Inman is an American mechanical engineer, Kelly Johnson Collegiate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan.
Steven M. Cron is a retired Michelin product research engineer and co-inventor of the Tweel.
Pavlos P. Vlachos is a Greek-American engineer, scientist, academic, and entrepreneur. He is professor in Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering and in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and the St. Vincent Health Professor of Healthcare Engineering. He serves as the Director for the Purdue Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE).
Joseph Padovan is a retired University of Akron Distinguished Professor known for pioneering finite element procedures for analysis of rolling tires.
Kenneth Lutchen is a biomedical engineer, researcher, professor, and university leader. He was named university provost and chief academic officer ad interim of Boston University in July 2023.
Marion G. Pottinger is an American mechanical engineer known for his work on tire footprint mechanics, tire wear and tire force and moment behavior.
Takashi Akasaka (1925-2010) was a Japanese engineering professor at Chuo University known for his work on cord-rubber composites and tires.
Joseph D. Walter is a retired American tire industry mechanical engineering researcher and Bridgestone executive.