Klaus-Jürgen Bathe is a civil engineer, professor of mechanical engineering at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and founder of ADINA R&D, who specializes in

computational mechanics Computational mechanics is the discipline concerned with the use of computational methods to study phenomena governed by the principles of mechanics. Before the emergence of computational science (also called scientific computing) as a "third w ...

. Bathe is considered to be one of the pioneers in the field of finite element analysis and its applications.

Early life and education

Born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, Bathe had his high school education in Oldenburg i. O. in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

. He then went to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, where he earned his graduate degree in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

in 1967. Bathe received his M.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

, Canada in 1969. Thereafter, he received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1971. His thesis was on numerical solution of large

eigenvalue In linear algebra, an eigenvector () or characteristic vector of a linear transformation is a nonzero vector that changes at most by a scalar factor when that linear transformation is applied to it. The corresponding eigenvalue, often denoted ...

problems, where he developed the subspace iteration method.

Career

During his time as a post-doctoral fellow (1972–1974) at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

, Bathe et al. developed the finite element programs SAP IV and NONSAP, which have been used by thousands of individuals and organizations in research and practice and had a major impact in advancing the finite element method. In 1974 he started the development of the ADINA system. Soon after, he joined the department of mechanical engineering at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

. In 1986, he founded ADINA R&D, Inc. On April 7, 2022, Bentley Systems acquired ADINA R&D, Inc.

Major contributions

Bathe has made fundamental contributions in the finite element analysis of

structures A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

heat transfer Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, ...

, field problems, CFD, and fluid-structure interactions. These contributions are widely used in commercial software codes. Specifically, the following contributions for reliable, accurate and efficient finite element analyses are widely employed: * Formulation of plate and shell finite elements (the MITC elements). * Formulations of large deformations of solids (the Total and Updated Lagrangian formulations). * Solution techniques for large eigenvalue problems (the Bathe subspace iteration method). * Solution techniques for contact problems (the constraint-function method). * Time integration schemes for the dynamic analysis of structures and fluid-structure interactions (the Bathe method). * Schemes for fully coupled fluid-structure interactions and multi-physics problems. * Mathematical analysis of finite element schemes. * The book "''Finite Element Procedures''" used as a standard reference text in academia and industry. Bathe is widely recognized to bridge the worlds of academia and industry in computational mechanics.

Honors and awards

Bathe has received many

honorary doctorates An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from institutions around the world: Slovak Academy of Sciences and Technical University of Zilina, Slovakia; Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany; Technical University of Rzeszow, Poland; Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain; University of Bucharest, Romania; University of Miskolc, Hungary; University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; University of Cape Town, South Africa; and Sorbonne Universités – Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France. Bathe has been listed as an ISI Highly Cited Author in Engineering by the ISI Web of Knowledge, Thomson Scientific Company.

Editorial activities

Bathe currently serves as the Co-Editor of the Journal of Computers & Structures. He is also the editor of the Springer's book series on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics. He has organized the twelve bi-yearly conferences "Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis and ADINA", at M.I.T., 1977–1999, and the seven bi-yearly conferences "Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics" at M.I.T., 2001–2013.

Klaus-Jürgen Bathe Leadership Program

The Klaus-Jürgen Bathe Leadership Programme was established at the

in 2014 through a gift donated by Professor Klaus-Jürgen Bathe. It is awarded annually to

students with at least 2 years of study left, from any of the six university faculties. The goal of this Program is to produce graduates coming from any faculty of the

, South Africa with outstanding leadership qualities and a strong sense of social justice, who will go on to play leading and significant roles in business, government, industry and civil society in South Africa and on the African continent.

Books

* K.J. Bathe and E.L. Wilson, "''Numerical Methods in Finite Element Analysis''", Prentice-Hall, 1976. * K.J. Bathe, "''Finite Element Procedures in Engineering Analysis''", Prentice-Hall, 1982. * K.J. Bathe, "''Finite Element Procedures''", 1st Edition, Prentice Hall, 1996; 2nd Edition, Watertown, MA: Klaus-Jürgen Bathe, 2014. * D. Chapelle and K.J. Bathe, "''The Finite Element Analysis of Shells – Fundamentals''", 1st Edition, Springer, 2003; 2nd edition, Springer, 2011. * M. Kojic and K.J. Bathe, "''Inelastic Analysis of Solids and Structures''", Springer, 2005. * K.J. Bathe, "''To Enrich Life''", Amazon.com, 2007, 2nd edition 2019. * K.J. Bathe, "''How Lawyers Think, Work & when Perhaps not Hire a Lawyer''", Amazon.com, 2021. * M.L. Bucalem, K.J. Bathe, "''The Mechanics of Solids and Structures – Hierarchical Modeling and the Finite Element Solution''", Springer, 2011.

Video Courses on Finite Element Methods

* MIT Video Lectures: "''Finite Element Procedures for Solids and Structures – Linear Analysis''". * MIT Video Lectures: "''Finite Element Procedures for Solids and Structures – Nonlinear Analysis''".

References

External links

Special issue on K. J. Bathe's 60th birthday anniversary, preface in Computers & Structures

Founder of ADINA R&D, Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathe, Klaus-Jurgen MIT School of Engineering faculty UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni University of Calgary alumni University of Cape Town alumni Engineers from Berlin 1943 births Living people