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Name            Olgierd Zienkiewicz 
Nationality     British 
Birth date      18 May 1921 
Birth place     Caterham, UK 
Date of death   2 January 2009 
Place of death  Swansea, UK  
 
Olgierd Cecil Zienkiewicz, CBE, FREng, FRS (born 18 May 1921 in Caterham, En 
gland) is a British academic, mathematician, and mechanical engineer. He is  
one of the early pioneers of the finite element method. Since his first pape 
r in 1947 dealing with numerical approximation to the stress analysis of dam 
s, he has published nearly 600 papers and written or edited more than 25 boo 
ks.  
 
Zienkiewicz is notable for having recognized the general potential for using 
the finite element method to resolve problems in areas outside the area of  
solid mechanics. The idea behind finite elements design is to develop tools  
based in computational mechanics schemes that can be useful to designers, no 
t solely for research purposes. His books on the Finite Element Method were  
the first to present the subject and to this day remain the standard referen 
ce texts. He also founded the first journal dealing with computational mecha 
nics in 1968 (International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering), wh 
ich is still the major journal for the field of Numerical Computations.[2]  
 
The international range of Zienkiewicz' academic experiences has been geogra 
phically diverse. He is today Professor Emeritus at the University of Wales, Swansea; 
and other teaching positions have included:  
 
International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering at CIMNE, Barcelon 
a, Spain -- Professor of Numerical Methods in Engineering  
 
Technical University of Catalunya at Barcelona, Spain -- UNESCO Chair of Num 
erical Methods in Engineering  
 
University of Texas, Austin -- Joe C Walter Chair of Engineering. |   
 
 
 
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