Inr.JHeatMass Transfer.
Vol 40,No.lS.pp.42534254,
1997
10 1997Elsevxr Science Ltd. All nghts reserved

PergamonPrinted in Great Britain
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Professor James R. Weltyon the occasion of his retirement from fullacademic service

Professor James R. Welty officially retired from
Oregon State University (OSU) on 31 December 1996.
On this occasion it is a great pleasure to honor hisachievements, even though he will continue to be
active as Professor Emeritus.
Professor Welty was born on 23 October 1933 inGarden City, Kansas. After graduating from highschool in Medford, Oregon, he went to OSU, where
he received his B.Sc. degree in 1954. After working for
Pratt and Whitney and the U.S. Air Force, Professor
Welty returned to OSU and received an MS. in Mechanical Engineering in 1959, and a Ph.D. in Chemical
Engineering in 1962, completing the requirements
while also having an appointment as a research engineer at the U.S. Bureau of Mines. In 1962 he wasappointed Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at OSU and became a full professor in 1967.
He served as head of Mechanical Engineering from1970 to 1985. Professor Welty has made a lasting markto both the university and community at OSU during
his 38 years of service. Because of his many contributions and his outstanding professional achievements through teaching, scholarship, and service, hewas awarded the OSU Alumni Association Distinguished Professor award in 1993.
The breadth of Professor Welty’s accomplishments
and the importance of his contributions to the heattransfer community are very impressive. His outstanding scholarly achievements and publications
during the past decades have significantly impacted
the science, practice, and education in heat transfer.
In response to the special needs of nuclear cooling, heundertook fundamental studies of natural convection
in liquid metals which yielded major contributions to
the permanent literature. The energy crisis motivated
his research in fluidized bed heat transfer, where heand co-workers have played strong roles in enhancing
fundamental understanding of this technology. He has
clearly established himself as an excellent researcher
in heat transfer field, with contributions in other areas
as well, such as radiation and non-Newtonian fluids.
His contributions, which encompass both experimentand analysis, have become standard reference. He has
many journal articles and his three textbooks havehelped students learn for many years, throughout theworld.

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M. FAGHRI et al.

Professor Welty is acknowledged
by students andfaculty alike as an outstanding
educator and hasreceived numerous
awards for excellence in engineering education at the department,college, university, state and national levels.
He has made unparalleledcontributions
to thetransmissionof technical informationand improvement of professional practice through his work in theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
where he is a Fellow and has served as the chairmanof the Heat Transfer Division. His contributions
havebeen recognized by the ASME award for dedicatedservice, the ASME Centennial
Medallion
and theASME Edwin Church Medal for his many contributions to engineering
educationat the national,
regional and sectional levels. Other activities include
Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department
Heads Committee, and member of boards on Government Relations, Basic Engineering, Engineering Education
and ProfessionalDevelopment.
In thesepositions, he has played an important role in upgrading
the quality of ASME short-course
offerings andassisted in the developmentof many programs frominfancy.

Professor Welty’s extensive service to professional
engineering
brings a very high level of nationalrecognition. He has just been elected to the national
Board of Governorsof ASME, and serves on the
Board of Directors for the Accreditation
Board forEngineeringand Technology(ABET). He has also
served as the national president of Pi Tau Sigma, themechanical engineering honorary society.
On the occasion of his retirement,
it is a great
pleasure for his students, colleagues and friends andeditors of this journal to wish Professor Welty many
years of good health and happiness.

MOHAMMADFAGHRIW. J. MINKOWYCZ
J. P. HARTNETTLORIN R. DAVISGORDON M. REISTADRONALD L. ADAMS
J. CRAIG DUTTONARTHUR E. BERGLESRICHARD J. GOLDSTEIN
CHANG-LIN
TIEN