Kon-Well Wang, the A. Galip Ulsoy Distinguished University Professor of Engineering and the Stephen P. Timoshenko Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, has been awarded Honorary Membership by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
First awarded in 1880, the founding year of ASME, Honorary Membership is one of the highest honors bestowed by the ASME Board of Governors. Up to five members of the society are selected each year for their lifetime of distinguished contributions to the engineering profession. Past awardees include Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Stephen P. Timoshenko, Vannevar Bush, J. P. Den Hartog, C. D. Mote, Jr., and Charles M. Vest.
“I am extremely honored to be recognized by the mechanical engineering community for this prestigious award.” Wang said, “It is especially humbling for me to join the esteemed group of past awardees, who are some inspirational role models I try to follow in my professional career.”
Wang was recognized for “lifelong distinguished contributions in achieving transformative research in structural dynamics with practical importance and establishing new fields, leading the community to advance engineering education and the engineering profession, and providing leadership that shaped the nation’s research and education.”
Throughout his career, Wang has distinguished himself as an eminent researcher and educator. As an internationally renowned scholar in the field of structural dynamics, vibration, and controls, his work has pioneered pathbreaking new multifunctional adaptive structural and material systems. He has developed multi-physics approaches to create new classes of systems, and has launched new fields of study by harnessing cross-disciplinary sciences.
Wang’s work has evolved from responsive materials-based structures, to nature-inspired metastructures, to embodying mechano-intelligence in structural dynamics. The sustained excellence of his research has impacted the field in the form of comprehensive models, system identification schemes, and design methodologies that have been widely adopted by others nationally and internationally. His achievements have significant contributions to basic scientific knowledge and practical technologies that have greatly benefited industry, from automotive drivetrains and rotorcraft airframes to space reflectors.
Wang has published more than 400 technical articles and books, mentored more than 90 graduate students and postdocs in research, and given nearly 200 invited talks, including more than 60 keynote/plenary or distinguished named lectures at conferences and institutions. He has received numerous awards, including the Pi Tau Sigma-ASME Charles Russ Richards Award, the ASME J.P. Den Hartog Award, the SPIE Smart Structures & Materials Lifetime Achievement Award, and the ASME Adaptive Structures & Material Systems Prize. He was an invited Leadoff Speaker at the 2022 Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society Symposium, organized by the National Academy of Engineering.
From 2008 to 2018, Wang led U-M Mechanical Engineering as Department Chair. In this role, he spearheaded efforts to develop a strategic vision and achieved the department’s goals of elevating research and education, growing faculty and emerging areas, building new infrastructure and facilities, and enhancing the department’s culture, climate, and external relations. He has also served as a Division Director at the National Science Foundation, providing leadership in shaping the nation’s research and education directions, including the launch of a new generation of engineering research centers promoting convergent research with high societal impact. He is a Fellow of ASME, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Physics, and the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Wang will be formally presented with the Honorary Membership award at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in Memphis, Tennessee, in November 2025.
