John W. Hutchinson
| John Woodsides Hutchinson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 April 1939 (age 79) |
| Residence | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Lehigh University Harvard University |
| Known for | Solid mechanics |
| Awards |
William Prager Medal (1991) Timoshenko Medal (2002) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Solid mechanics |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Bernard Budiansky |
| Doctoral students | Alan Needleman, Shih Choon Fong, Yonggang Huang, Zhigang Suo |
John W. Hutchinson (born April 10, 1939) is the Abbott and James Lawrence Research Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He works in the field of solid mechanics concerned with a broad range of problems in structures and engineering materials. A brief history of his education and professional experience follows.
John Hutchinson was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1939, the eldest child of John W. Hutchinson and Evelyn Eastburn Hutchinson. A month or so after he was born, the family moved to Bridgeton, New Jersey where Hutchinson’s father, a newly ordained Presbyterian minister, assumed the pastorship of the First Presbyterian Church. Hutchinson grew up in Bridgeton and attended the local high school. He matriculated at Lehigh University for his undergraduate studies eventually electing to major in the newly created Department of Engineering Mechanics. He attended Lehigh during the period 1956 to 1960 when space achievements, particularly those of the Soviet Union, had considerable influence on aspiring young engineers. He was further motivated in this direction in the summer of 1959 by a summer job at Boeing in Seattle. Hutchinson decided to pursue graduate work in mechanical engineering at Harvard University where he conducted his Ph.D. research under Bernard Budiansky, an expert in solid mechanics and structures who had come to Harvard from NACA (the predecessor to NASA). Hutchinson’s thesis was on the theory of polycrystalline plasticity, an early effort to characterize the nonlinear plastic behavior of structural metals at the engineering scale based on the microscopic behavior of the single crystal grains comprising the polycrystal. After finishing his thesis in the spring of 1963, Hutchinson spent a six-month post-doctoral period at the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen hosted by Frithof Niordson, the head of the solid mechanics department. The connection with Denmark would prove to be an enduring one. While in Denmark, he was invited to return to Harvard to join the faculty as an assistant professor. This would also prove to be an enduring connection. He worked his way through the ranks at Harvard and served on the faculty for fifty years and continues at the university as a Research Professor (emeritus status). He also holds the position of Adjunct Professor at the Technical University of Denmark and a Visiting Professorship at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
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