Ares J. Rosakis Sc.M.'80 Ph.D.'83 was among those elected new members and foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences, in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and -- with the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine -- provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.
In 2013, Rosakis was named the inaugural recipient of the Otis Booth Leadership Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science at California Institute of Technology. This position is the equivalent to that of "Dean" of the School of Engineering in other major universities. Prior to that, he served as the fifth Director of the historic Graduate Aerospace Laboratories (GALCIT) at Caltech. He is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Engineering Science from Oxford University, and his Sc.M. and Ph.D. degrees in solid mechanics from Brown University.
Rosakis has been honored with many recognitions in mechanics, in aerospace, and in materials failure, including the 1988 Rudolf Kingslake Medal and Prize from the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) and with various prizes awarded by the Society of Experimental Mechanics (SEM). These include the 1992 Hetényi Award, the 1996 B. L. Lazan Award, and the 2003 Frocht Award. In 2005 the same society selected him to become the William M. Murray Medalist and Lecturer for his life-long contributions to the development and application of advanced methods for accurate measurement of transient, dynamic phenomena. In 2007, he received the Harting Award (SEM). In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). In 2010, he was awarded the Brown Engineering Alumni Medal (BEAM) and the Robert Henry Thurston Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In 2011, he received the A.C. Eringen Medal from the Society of Engineering Science (SES) and he was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). In 2012, he was appointed Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the Republic of France. In 2013, he received the P.S. Theocaris Award from the Society of Experimental Mechanics for his lifelong contribution to experimental science and mechanics. He was also elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea), and most recently a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and corresponding member of the Academy of Athens (National Academy of Greece). In 2015, he received the Sia Nemat-Nasser Medal from SEM for his interdisciplinary utilization of experimental mechanics to advance the field of earthquake seismology.