In June 2022, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) bestowed the “Theodore von Kármán Medal” to Prof. Roger Ghanem, the international partner representative and adjunct professor of the International Joint Research Center for Engineering Reliability and Stochastic Mechanics (JCERSM) at Tongji University and professor of the University of Southern California, in recognition of Prof. Ghanem’s outstanding contribution to “the field of stochastic mechanics and its application to emerging problems in science and engineering”.

Ghanem received his B.S degree from American University of Beirut in 1984, and his M.S and Ph.D. degrees from Rice University in 1985 and 1989, respectively. After completing his studies, Ghanem worked in Rice University (1989~1991), State University of New York (1992~1995), Johns Hopkins University (1995~2004), and University of Southern California (2005~). He is now the Gordon Marshall Professor at the University of Southern California.

Prof. Ghanem has pioneered the field of uncertainty qualification (UQ) since well before it became critical in almost every branch of computational engineering. His seminal book “Stochastic Finite Elements: A Spectral Approach”, co-authored with Prof. Pol Spanos, has served as the entry point to this exciting field for two generations of researchers. 

His original adaptation of polynomial chaos expansions (PCE) to solving stochastic partial differential equations has laid the ground for the very rapid growth of UQ. In addition to introducing PCE to computational engineering, he has demonstrated and explored the significance of this method as a probabilistic multiscale/multiphysics modeling tool. In the process, he has contributed to its conceptual, algorithmic, and integration aspects.  

“Theodore von Kármán Medal” was initiated by ASCE in 1960 to honor Prof. Theodore von Kármán (1881~1963), an internationally renowned force scientist, in the field of mechanics and engineering. Von Kármán is the world's leading master of mechanics, and has made fundamental and important contributions to the development of fluid mechanics, aerodynamics and other fields in the 20th century.

The medal may be made annually to an individual who has made significant technical or technological contributions to the field of engineering mechanics, and is one of the highest achievements in the field of engineering mechanics. Prof. Pol Spanos, the co-director of JCERSM, also won this medal. Prof. Ghanem is the 61st winner so far.

Prof. Ghanem is one of the international partner representatives to initiate the International Joint Research Center for Engineering Reliability and Stochastic Mechanics (JCERSM) at Tongji University since 2015, and has been the international junction professor of JCERSM since then.

Written by Meng-Ze Lyu

Checked by Jian-Bing Chen

and Yong-Bo Peng

August 9, 2022