Professor Jan D. Achenbach, Walter P. Murphy and Distinguished McCormick School Professor at the Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention at Northwestern University, delivered a speech on June 1 to the Tsinghua Forum entitled "Theoretical and Applied Mechanics: The Crown Jewel of Engineering Analysis". Tsinghua University Council Vice Chairperson Deng Wei had a discussion with Professor Achenbach prior to the speech.

Professor Achenbach reviewed the most significant achievements in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics in the 20th century and shared with the students his personal experience and latest research. He is a pioneer in engineering mechanics who joined the faculty at Northwestern in 1963 and became a preeminent researcher in solid mechanics and quantitative non-destructive evaluation.

Achenbach has made major contributions in the field of propagation of mechanical disturbances in solids. He has achieved important results in quantitative non-destructive evaluation of materials, damage mechanisms in composites, and vibrations of complex structures. Achenbach has developed methods for flaw detection and characterization by ultrasonic scattering methods. He also has achieved valuable results on earthquake mechanisms, the mechanical behavior of composite materials under dynamic loading conditions, and the vibrations of solid propellant rockets. Achenbach is founder of Northwestern's Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention, a state-of-art laboratory for quality control in structural mechanics which has had a profound impact on the aircraft industry, particularly the monitoring of aging aircraft.

Achenbach was awarded the 2003 National Medal of Technology and the 2005 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honors for innovation in technology and science. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1982, the National Academy of Sciences in 1992, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994. In 1999 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. Achenbach is also an honorary member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a fellow of ASME, ASA, SES, AMA and AAAS. His numerous awards include the Timoshenko Medal, the William Prager Medal and the 2010 Theodore von Karman Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers.