Jim Barber, Jon R. & Beverly S. Holt Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering, is held with the utmost esteem by his colleagues across the world. The quality of his work, his collegiality, and his earnest devotion to his field are among the many praises sung by the contributors to a special issue of the International Journal of Solids and Structures (IJSS), published in honor of Dr. Barber’s 80th birthday.
The issue celebrates Dr. Barber’s “phenomenal contribution to the field of Applied Mechanics” and includes papers by Dr. Barber’s “many colleagues and friends from around the world, who wish [him] many happy returns, and thank him for all he has contributed to their work.” Among the contributors are U-M ME Professor Michael Thouless, U-M ME Professor Wei Lu, and U-M AERO Professor Emeritus Nick Triantafyllidis.
Praise for Dr. Barber’s talents as a “clear, entertaining, and inspiring lecturer” are coupled with esteem for his more than 250 publications, which, as stated in the article, are all “worth reading for [their] insight, mathematical sophistication, eloquence, and conciseness.” Two of Dr. Barber’s works especially noted are Elasticity, now in its third edition, and Contact Mechanics, a “tour de force, wholly original in content, with fresh looks at topics which are well-known.”
“We are sure that we speak for others, too, when we say that we, personally, could not have begun to have ‘got going’ on our own work without having been imbued with that sense of looking for what lies at the core of a problem and addressing that,” said guest editors of the issue, David Hills, Daniele Dini, and Marco Paggi.
Congratulations, Dr. Barber.
