Oden Institute Alumnus Selected as AAM Fellow 2019

Oden Institute alumnus, Tarek I. Zohdi, has been selected as the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM) Fellow for 2019.

Tarek I. Zohdi is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Chair of the Designated Emphasis Program in Computational and Data Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (2012-present).

Zohdi started his academic career at the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. Under the stewardship of Dr. Tinsley Oden, founder of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Dr. Zohdi earned a Ph.D. from what was then known as the Computational & Applied Mathematics Program (now Computational Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (CSEM)) in 1997.

According to Dr. Oden, Tarek Zohdi has gone onto become one of the “most successful and world-acclaimed alumni” of the Oden Institute graduate programs.

Upon leaving UT Austin, he first moved to Germany, continuing his research in large-scale modeling of heterogeneous materials. In 2002, he received his Habilitation in General Mechanics (Allgemeine Mechanik), the highest academic degree in Germany.

Zohdi joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001, where he quickly rose to the rank of Professor of Mechanical Engineering. In 2014, he was awarded the title of Chancellor Professor and he currently holds the prestigious W. C. Hall Family Endowed Chair in Engineering.

“Tarek also launched a very successful international journal -‘Computational Particle Mechanics’ with Eugenio Onate and Peter Wriggers - for which he is co-Editor in Chief,” Oden said.

He has authored six books and monographs and over 175 journal articles that have appeared in top peer-reviewed journals. He is a Fellow and former president of the U.S. Association of Computational Mechanics and remains active in many international societies devoted to computational mathematics and mechanics.

“He also served on the National Academies U. S. National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNCTAM) among others,” Dr. Oden said. “He is truly a leader and we are very proud of him.”

"I am really honored to be selected as the AAM Fellow for 2019,” said Dr. Tarek Zohdi. “UT Austin and, in particular, the Oden Institute, really gave me a great start!"

The American Academy of Mechanics (AAM) is an honor society home to all disciplines “engaged in the study of the response of inanimate and animate matter to forces and environmental effects.”