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Welcome
to my Web site!
We are pleased to illustrate some
of the research work of our group, please see "about
me."
Theodore
Yao-Tsu Wu
2006 CTUAA-SC Lifetime Achievement Award
B.S. 1946, Chaio-Tung University;
M.S. 1948, Iowa
State University;
Ph.D. 1952, Professor Emeritus of Engineering Science (1996-),
California Institute of Technology.
John Simon Guggenheim Fellow (1964); Australian CSIRO and Universities Fellow
(1976); Japan JSPS Fellow (1981); Member, U.S. Academy of Engineering (1982);
Member, Academia Sinica (1984); Honorary Fellow,
Institute of Mechanics (1988), and Foreign Member, Chinese Academy of
Sciences (2002); American Physical Society Fellow and Am. Phys. Soc. 1993
Fluid Mechanics Prize.
With his basic training in aeronautics, mathematics, and fluid physics, Dr.
Wu has taught at Caltech since his graduation and pursued research in
engineering science, a newly evolving field that forges frontiers abridging
engineering with different branches of science. Enjoying teaching, he has
been called upon to teach undergraduate core courses and advanced graduate
core courses, for which endeavor he was accorded a Caltech Distinguished
Teaching Award. He is in full conviction that all students can be inspired,
with due stimuli, to learn how to learn best by themselves.
In his career, Dr. Wu has shown a broad and versatile interest in research,
including flows of compressible, viscous and heat-conducting fluids;
free-streamline theory of cavities, jets and wakes; water waves and
free-surface flows, mechanics of fish swimming and bird/insect flight; wind
and ocean-current energy, internal waves in the ocean, mathematics of
nonlinear evolution equatons, etc. With students
and visiting colleagues, they collaborated on studies of low-Reynolds-number
hydrodynamics, microorganism locomotion and related biophysical phenomena.
The recent research interest of Wu's group is focused on forced generation of
nonlinear waves at resonance of soliton-bearing
systems, three-dimensional vortex dynamics, and coastal oceanography. His new
theoretical model for fully nonlinear dispersive waves in water of variable
depth is ideal for investigating mitigation and control of such natural
hazards as tsunami, storm surge, and hurricanes. The new idea and concept,
based on devising means for active and passive control and mitigation of
devastating waves and fluid flows, may germinate growth of a new field.
Revisiting bio-physics, he has developed a fully nonlinear lifting theory for
modeling bird flying and fish swimming. In collection, Dr. Wu has authored
and co-authored over 150 papers published in archive journals and book
chapters. His lifetime contributions have been recognized by winning the
Lifetime Achievement Awards of the 1993 Chinese-American Faculty Assoc. of So.
Calif.,
1995 Chinese Engineers and Scientists Association of So. Calif., and of the 2000 No. American Chiao Tung U. Alumni Assoc.
Professionally, Dr. Wu pursues, with conviction, the goal of enhancing
academic interaction between individuals, groups, societies and nations. This
is the best road, he believes, to promote science, disseminate knowledge and
share wisdom. He is always sincere in responding to discussions and to giving
plenum lectures at scientific meetings. He has made the U.S. Southwest Universities
Lecture Tour (1968), Chinese Academy of Science Summer Lectures (1981), UC
Berkeley Russell Springer Honorary Professor Lectures (1981), Herbert Wagner
Memorial Lecture in Munich (1984), U.S.
Midwest Universities Lecture Tour (1985), Distinguished Willian
Mong Lecture in Hong Kong (1997), Distinguished
Israel Pollack Lecture in Haifa
(1999) and other invited lectures. He has accepted appointments as Honorary
Professor in several universities abroad. He is a co-editor of the serial of
Advances in Applied Mechanics that was founded by Theodore von Karman and
Richard von Mises; he has edited scores of books
and Proceeding Volumes of international conferences he organized. In
teaching, he has guided a good number of students to doctorate, an endeavor he
has conducted with dedication, great expectation, and pride.
Dr. Wu, married to Dr. Chinhua Shih Wu, have two
grown children: Fonda Bai-yueh and Melba Bai-chin and two grandchildren.
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