M.M. Frocht Award

Mr. Max Mark Frocht was honored for his professional accomplishments by the 1967 initiation of the M.M. Frocht Award. The award recognizes "outstanding achievement as an educator in the field of experimental mechanics," and is presented annually.

Dr. Frocht's work on photoelasticity research on stress concentration factors and 3-D techniques and his two-volume treatise on photoelasticity is considered a classic and has been translated into Russian, Spanish, and Chinese. Its publication was credited with revitalizing interest in photoelasticity.

Dr. Frocht was a student of Steven Timoshenko and many of his own students have made important contributions to the field of experimental mechanics. He presented papers and lectures on photoelasticity and experimental stress analysis in all parts of the world.

Dr. Eann Patterson received his B.Eng. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Sheffield, England where he was appointed as a Lecturer in 1985. He became a Reader in 1993, Professor in 1997, and served as Head of Department from 2001 to 2004. From 2004 to 2009, he was Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University where he has been Director of the Composite Vehicle Research Center since 2008.

Dr. Patterson has worked in the field of experimental mechanics for about twenty-five years and advised 25 Ph.D. students with whom he has published more than 250 papers on subjects that include photoelasticity, thermoelasticity, digital image correlation and their applications in fracture mechanics and the aerospace industry. He was editor of Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures from 2001-06 and has been editor of the Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design since 2006. He was elected a Fellow of SEM in 2007.