Jan D. Achenbach was the Walter P. Murphy and Distinguished McCormick School Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. Born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, in 1935, he studied aeronautical engineering at Delft University of Technology and earned his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1962. Following a postdoctoral year at Columbia University, he joined Northwestern as an assistant professor of civil engineering in 1963, becoming associate professor in 1966, full professor in 1969, Walter P. Murphy Professor in 1981, and Distinguished McCormick School Professor in 1992. He directed the Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention from 1985 to 2006 and continued active research, teaching, and supervision as emeritus-in-service faculty until his passing on August 22, 2020.

Achenbach specialized in applied mechanics and quantitative nondestructive evaluation. He developed pioneering methods for flaw detection and characterization using contact transducers, imaging techniques, laser-based ultrasonics, and acoustic microscopy, with applications to aircraft structures, bridges, and nuclear reactors. His research also encompassed fracture mechanics, structural acoustics, and mechanical behavior of composite materials, establishing the field of quantitative nondestructive evaluation. He was founding editor and editor-in-chief from 1979 to 2012 of the journal Wave Motion and authored key books including Wave Propagation in Elastic Solids (1973), Reciprocity in Elastodynamics (2003), Ray Methods for Waves in Elastic Solids (1982), and A Theory of Elasticity with Microstructure for Directionally Reinforced Composites (1975). Achenbach's impact is evidenced by the National Medal of Technology (2003) for ultrasonic crack detection in aircraft, National Medal of Science (2005), ASME Medal (2012), Theodore von Kármán Medal (2010), William Prager Medal (2001), election to the National Academy of Engineering (1982), National Academy of Sciences (1992), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and honorary doctorate from Zhejiang University (2011).

Professional Email: achenbach@northwestern.edu