Three ASME members receive National Medals

Dean L. Sicking and Charles M. Vest were among three Society members who received National Medals of Science and Technology from President Bush at a White House ceremony last month. At the ceremony, they were joined by ASME Fellow Jan D. Achenbach, whose selection as a National Medal of Science recipient was reported in the August issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine.

Achenbach, Sicking, and Vest were among more than two dozen recipients of 2005 and 2006 Medals of Science and Technology. Giving out the awards for both years at one time enabled the program, which met with unexpected delays during the last couple of years, to get back on schedule, a spokesman for the awards program said. The National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Commerce administer the awards and recommend those to be honored.

Dean Sicking, P.E., the director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility and professor of civil engineering at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was awarded the 2005 National Medal of Technology — the highest honor in the United States for achievements related to technical progress. The medal is given annually to individuals, teams, and organizations for the development of new and important technology that helps ensure the nation's economic, environmental, and social well-being.

Sicking, whose professional interests include protective highway structures, vehicle dynamics, and highway safety warrants, holds registered professional engineer's licenses in Arizona, Nebraska, and Texas. He received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Texas A&M University.

Sicking has earned a number of awards, including the Lincoln Journal Star's 2002 Star of the Year Award, the Popular Science Award for Top 100 Technical Innovations, the Specialty Equipment Market Association's Motorsports Engineering Award and the Society of Automotive Engineers' Louis Schwitzer Award — all for the development of the steel and foam energy reducing (SAFER) barrier for high-speed race tracks. He has been a member of ASME since 1983.

Charles M. Vest

Charles Vest, an ASME Fellow, received the 2006 National Medal of Technology. He is president emeritus and professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Vest earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University, and both his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. He has garnered 10 honorary doctoral degrees.

The president of MIT from 1990–2004, Vest was appointed by President Bush to the Iraq Intelligence Committee in 2004. Vest began his six-year term as the new president of the National Academy of Engineering this month. He was a contributor to a number of National Academies studies, including the landmark 2007 report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future," which focused on the key role science and engineering play in U.S. innovation and international competitiveness. Vest has been an ASME member since 1963.

Also at the ceremony, President Bush presented ASME Fellow Jan Achenbach with the 2005 National Medal of Science, which is bestowed in recognition of lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research, including physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences. This is Achenbach's second national medal. He already holds the National Medal of Technology.

Achenbach, who is also an Honorary Member of ASME, holds two professorships in three departments at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He is the Walter P. Murphy Professor and Distinguished McCormick School Professor of the departments of mechanical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and engineering sciences and applied mathematics.

The National Medal of Science recognizes Achenbach's contributions to engineering research and education in the area of wave propagation in solids and his pioneering work in the field of quantitative non-destructive evaluation. He developed a method using ultrasound to detect cracks and corrosion in structures, including airplanes, bridges, and nuclear reactors.

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