Rice Prof. Tayfun, speaks to HASSE students

Professor Tayfun E. Tezduyar delivered a speech to HASSE‘s students. Dr. Tezduyar received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1982. After postdoctoral work at Stanford, he had faculty positions at University of Houston and University of Minnesota.

Professor Tayfun E. Tezduyar 

Professor Tayfun E. Tezduyar delivered a speech to HASSE’s students at Rice University, Houston, Texas. He spoke to students about fluid mechanics through computer generated animations, allowing students a better understanding of the complex concepts being discussed. Professor Tayfun encouraged students to become an expert at something, as he was, which will open up more opportunities in their future careers. 

Professor Tayfun’s first foray into parachute modeling began in the 1990s at the request of US Army. “When you are asked to work on something, you don’t want to say no,” he says.  “There is a big difference between trying to do something on your own versus someone coming to you and saying can you do it.”  Since that first assignment, Tezduyar has become a leader in the field of parachute simulation and modeling.”If you look at the problems we work on, what’s common among them is that they all involve fluid mechanics, solid or structural mechanics, and the dynamic interaction between the two,” says Tezduyar, the James F. Barbour Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University.  Many engineering challenges are rooted in this interaction between fluid and structural mechanics, Tezduyar says.  “Much like a parachute

[filling with air] … arteries also deform and change shapes as the blood is pumped and the blood pressure changes,” he says. 

Professor Tayfun E. Tezduyar  explaining about aerodynmics

Dr. Tezduyar received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1982. After postdoctoral work at Stanford, he had faculty positions at University of Houston and University of Minnesota. At Minnesota he became a full professor in 1991 and was named Distinguished McKnight University Professor in 1997. He was the Director and Principal Investigator of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center from January 1994 to October 1998 and was widely recognized for leading the center to the level of excellence it reached during that period. He joined Rice University in 1998 as James F. Barbour Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. He served as chairman of the department from January 1999 to June 2004.