International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 53 (2010) 2581–2582

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

In Celebration

Professor James V. Beck on his 80th birthday

On May 18, 2010, James V. Beck celebrates his 80th birthday.
For 50 years, Professor Beck has made outstanding contributions
as a scholar and teacher. He is a well-respected and prominentcontributor to several scientiﬁc and engineering communities
within the United States and internationally, especially in the areasof parameter estimation, solutions to inverse problems, andGreen’s functions applied to conduction heat transfer. Professor
Beck continues to publish regularly and teach seminar courses onparameter estimation and inverse problems. Jim balances hisenthusiasm for research with his dedication to his wife, Barbara,
and to their children and grandchildren.
Professor Beck received his B.S. degree from Tufts University in
1956, S.M. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1957, and Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1964, all in
Mechanical Engineering. He was a Senior Staff Scientist at AVCO Research and Advanced Development in Massachusetts from 1957 until 1962. He then joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering
at MSU in 1962 as an instructor, rising to professor in 1971. His manyformer graduate students play prominent roles in academia, research laboratories, and in government. Currently, he is Professor
Emeritus at MSU. Professor Beck has enjoyed sabbatical leaves atSandia National Laboratories and in Europe.
As a pioneer in the ﬁeld of inverse problems in heat transfer, Professor Beck has exerted leadership to foster an international community in this ﬁeld. The Inverse Problems in Engineering Seminars weredoi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2010.02.024

initiated at MSU in 1988 through his impetus. These informal meetings continue to attract scholars from around the world to universities around the USA. A collaboration with Jean-Pierre Bardon startingin 1982 and has continued ever since. In 1993, they instigated ameeting at ISITEM (Institut des Sciences de ÍIngénieur en Thermique-Energétique et Matériaux) within the University of Nantes,
which resulted in the creation of the International Conference on Inverse Problems in Engineering and in the creation of the Frenchgroup METTI (Métrologie Thermique et Techniques Inverses). In
1990, Professor Beck led a delegation of participants to the FirstInternational Conference on Inverse Problems in Suzdal, USSR. In
1992, Professor Beck organized the visit of a large delegation of Russian scientists to the USA as participants of his IPE Seminar and theﬁve-day 1st American–Russian workshop on Inverse Problems
sponsored by the NSF. Four years later, in 1994, he jointly organized
the second conference in this series in St. Petersburg, Russia, with
O.M. Alifanov of the Moscow Aviation Institute. The workshop fostered collaborations between specialists in the ﬁeld of inverse phenomena from many countries. These efforts have led to a large
number of publications, presentations, and successful students scattered across the globe. The Sixth International Conference on Inverse
Problems in Samara, Russia (May 2–7, 2010) will be dedicated toProfessor James V. Beck’s 80th birthday.
Professor Beck has authored more than 130 archival journal
articles and ﬁve book chapters, as well as countless technical2582

In Celebration / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 53 (2010) 2581–2582

presentations. Many of his publications have been collaborations
made possible by his lifelong search for people who share hisenthusiasm for discovery. Professor Beck is the primary author ofthree graduate level textbooks: Parameter Estimation in Engineeringand Science, with K.J. Arnold (Wiley, 1977); InverseHeat Conduction:
Ill-posed Problems, with Ben Blackwell and Charles R. St. Clair, Jr.
(Wiley, 1985); and Heat Conduction Using Green’s Functions, withK.D. Cole, A. Haji-Sheikh, and B. Litkouhi (Hemisphere, 1992). The
book InverseHeat Conduction: Ill-posed Problems has been translated
into Russian and published by Mir Publishing in 1989; it is very
popular among Russian students and specialists in the ﬁeld ofinverse problems.
Active in the Heat Transfer Division of the American Society ofMechanical Engineers, Professor Beck has been a Fellow of ASME
since 1988. He served as Associate Technical Editor for the ASME
Journal of Heat Transfer and as Associate Editor for Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering. Professor Beck was awarded
ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award in 1998, and later served as
the Chair of the Heat Transfer Division’s Honors and Awards Committee. Other awards include the MSU Distinguished FacultyAward (1987) and the Tufts University Department of MechanicalEngineering Award for Outstanding Achievement in MechanicalEngineering Practice (1991).
Professor Beck has brought several international researchers
into his research group at Michigan State, resulting in several
long-term collaborations and many friendships. The French group
METTI, strongly supported by Jim Beck, was the result of a long collaboration between him and thermal engineering teams of several
universities including Paris VI, Nantes, Lyon, Nancy, Poitiers, Marseille, etc. This collaboration started in 1982 and has continued
ever since, prompting Jim Beck to come to France on several occasions to give talks and bring French researchers into his team atMSU. For this reason Jim Beck is very well known, appreciated,and respected in the French heat transfer community.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday, and on behalf of his great
many friends, former students, and colleagues worldwide, as wellas the editors of the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, we wish Professor Beck a resounding Happy 80th Birthday withmany thanks for all of his valuable contributions, outstanding service, leadership, and, especially, his friendship. We wish Professor
Beck and his family many happy years of continued prosperity andgreat health!
Oleg M. Alifanov
Jean-Pierre Bardon
Ben Blackwell
Kevin D. Cole
Filippo DeMonte
Kirk D. Dolan
Kevin J. Dowding
A. Haji-Sheikh *Ned R. Keltner
Robert L. McMasters IV
W.J. Minkowycz
Aleksey Nenarokomov
Elaine P. Scott
Keith A. Woodbury
Neil T. WrightMechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department,
The University of Texas at Arlington, 500 First Street,Arlington, TX 76019-0023, USA* Tel.: +1 817 272 2010.
E-mail address: haji@uta.edu (A. Haji-Sheikh)
Available online 16 March 2010