Shih Choon Fong won the Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award

Professor Choon Fong Shih, President, National University of Singapore; Founding President, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

For lasting contributions to mechanics, and for building bridges between disciplines and between nations

Professor Shih Choon Fong received his PhD from Harvard University in 1973, after which he joined GE’s Corporate Research Lab, where he later led its Fracture Research Group. In 1981, Shih took up a faculty position at Brown University, becoming a full professor five years later. After 30 years in the US, Shih returned to Singapore, his birthplace, as the founding Director of the national-level Institute of Materials Research and Engineering. In 2000, Shih took office as Vice-Chancellor and President of the National University of Singapore (NUS). In December 2008, Shih will become founding President of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

Shih enjoys worldwide recognition for his pioneering work in nonlinear fracture mechanics and related computational methods. The awards he has won include the Swedlow Award and the George Irwin Medal from the American Society for Testing and Materials. With more than 150 publications in leading scientific journals to his credit, Shih is listed by the Institute for Scientific Information as being among the world’s highly cited engineering researchers.

As NUS President, Shih has actively promoted the university’s global profile and reach. He was a key driver for the formation of the International Alliance of Research Universities, an alliance of 10 of the world’s leading research universities spanning four continents. He is the chairman emeritus of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), a consortium of 37 leading research universities modeled after the premier Association of American Universities. Shih also chairs the governing boards of the Singapore-MIT Alliance and the APRU World Institute. The latter seeks to address scientific, social and economic issues of global importance.

Shih has served on national committees and boards in Singapore such as the Economic Review Committee which developed wide-ranging strategies for re-making Singapore. An Executive Committee member of the Economic Development Board, Shih is also a founding member of the Singapore International Foundation and a board member of the National Research Foundation. He was the founding President of the Materials Research Society of Singapore, an affiliate of the International Union of Materials Research Societies.

Among Shih’s many international honors are his elections as a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Engineering and as a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Shih has also been awarded the French decoration "Chevalier" in the Order of the "Legion d'Honneur" as well as honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Brown University and Waseda University. He was the inaugural recipient from Asia Pacific for the Chief Executive Leadership Award presented by the Council for Advancement and Support for Education.

The Applied Mechanics Award was established in 1995 and renamed the Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award in 2008. The Award is given to an outstanding individual for significant contributions in the practice of engineering mechanics; contributions may result from innovation, research, design, leadership or education.

The Award will be presented at the Applied Mechanics Banquet, on 4 November 2008, at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, in Boston.

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