The Dean's Award for engineering achievement is given this year to Dr. Irving H. Shames, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and University at Buffalo Faculty Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, for his career-long contributions to engineering.

Dr. Shames began his post-secondary education at Northeastern University, where he received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1948. He earned his M.S. in Applied Mechanics from Harvard University in 1949. Dr. Shames then studied applied mechanics at the University at Maryland and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1953.

Dr. Shames' teaching career began at the University at Maryland, where he was an instructor from 1949-53. Upon finishing his doctorate, he became an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Maryland, a post he held until 1955. During this same time, he also lectured at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. Other early career positions included: Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, 1955-57; Professor and Chairman, Department of Engineering Science, Pratt University, 1957-62; and Acting Chairman, Physics Department, Pratt University, 1960-61.

In 1962, it was our good fortune to have Dr. Shames accept an offer to be Professor and Chairman, Division of Interdisciplinary Studies and Research, School of Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo. Little did any of the parties realize that the result would be a thirty-plus-year relationship that stretches to the present. In 1970, Dr. Shames was given the title Faculty Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, a post he held until 1973, when he was called upon to be Professor and Chairman, Department of Engineering Science, Aerospace Engineering and Nuclear Engineering. In 1979, he again assumed the title of Faculty Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, a distinction he still holds. In 1980, the Trustees of the State University of New York bestowed on him the highest professorial rank possible in the SUNY system, Distinguished Teaching Professor. Twice (1969, 1975), Dr. Shames has journeyed to the Technion, Israel as a Visiting Professor.

For the last twenty years, Dr. Shames has been the lead instructor for engineering mechanics at our School. The number of UB Engineering students benefiting from his instruction is countless. During the summers of 1986 and 1987, he conducted workshops for community college professors in charge of mechanics instruction at their institutions. In 1991, he and colleagues won a grant from the National Science Foundation to share instructional techniques in mechanics and computers with college instructors. Thus, techniques that Dr. Shames has developed through the years in his own teaching have been shared with college instructors from throughout the United States who will further spread that instruction to an even larger group of engineering students.

Dr. Shames' love for teaching students is complemented by his love for writing textbooks. Books that he was written or co-authored are: Mechanics of Fluids, Mechanics of Deformable Solids, Engineering Mechanics - Statics, Engineering Mechanics - Dynamics, Introduction to Statics, Solid Mechanics - A Variational Approach, Introduction to Solid Mechanics, Energy and Finite Elements in Structural Mechanics, and Elastic and Inelastic Stress Analysis. Most of these books have been translated into foreign languages and sold around the world. Many of these texts are also in their second and thirst editions, a testament to their continued relevance. These books have collectively sold over half a million copies. Dr. Shames is also editor of McGraw Hill's Advanced Engineering Mechanics Series.

Dr. Shames has been recognized for high achievement throughout his career. He was elected to Tau Beta Pi (Northeastern University, 1949), Sigma Xi (University of Maryland, 1952), Phi Eta Sigma (University of Maryland, 1952), and Pi Tau Sigma (Pratt University, 1954). In 1964, Northeastern presented him their Distinguished Alumnus Award. His teaching honors earned at the University at Buffalo include: Teacher of the Year, 1964; Faculty Teaching Award (first awarded), 1966; Student Teaching Award (university-wide, first awarded), 1975; SUNY Award for Teaching Excellence, 1978; Golden Key Honor Society (first group of faculty inducted as honorary members), 1989; and Teacher of the Year, 1990.

Dr. Shames is married to Sheila Shapiro; they have two grown children. Shortly after Dr. Shames assumes the title of Professor Emeritus with us, he and Mrs. Shames will be moving to the Washington, D.C. area, where he will be a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Washington University and where he and his wife will be close to family who live in D.C.

We are pleased to have our distinguished teacher and writer Irving H. Shames here today to receive the 1993 Engineering Dean's Award.