Dear colleagues,
It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lothar Gaul passed away on December 18th, 2018, following complications from a car accident. Many of you know and have worked with him in the joints community over the last 20+ years, and are familiar with his contributions such as the Gaul resonator for experimental investigation of joint hysteresis, the use of zero thickness elements for modeling jointed interfaces, advancing experimental modal identification, and his review articles on friction models. Lothar had a larger than life presence, both literally as he usually was the tallest person in a room and figuratively with the wealth of knowledge that he brought to enrich any conversation. As I reflect on my memories of our many interactions, such as his demonstration that he could write with both hands, simultaneously and legibly, I would like to share his biography, adapted from what was going to be used to introduce him at the International Conference on Structural Engineering Dynamics 2019, where he was scheduled to give the keynote address in June.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lothar Gaul graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from FHS Wilhelmshaven and went on to the University of Hannover where he completed his M Eng., Dr.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. Habil. Degrees in Mechanical Engineering. During his career, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gaul has been a Visiting Professor at various universities throughout the world, a Full Professor at the University of Federal Armed Forces Hamburg from 1981 to 1993, where he was also the Dean of Engineering from 1991 to 1993. From 1993 onwards, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gaul was a Full Professor of Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart, where he was an Elected Member of the Academic Senate from 2002 to 2010, Director of the Institute of Applied Mechanics, and Dean of Process Engineering and Engineering Cybernetics from 1999 to 2002. Throughout his career, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gaul received multiple awards, most recently including the Thomes Caughey Dynamics Award from ASME in 2013 and the Helmholtz Medaille, which is the most prestigious acoustics award in Germany, in 2015. He has authored three books, numerous book chapters, over 150 journal papers, over 200 conference papers, and has supervised over 40 Ph.D. students, and co-supervised 18 and supervised 8 Post-Doctoral Associates for the Habilitation Thesis.
To quote Daniel Rixen, “His immense kindness will be missed, but his innovative ideas addressing many scientific challenges in structural dynamics will continue to influence future generations of engineers. We would like to share our sincere sorrow with his wife who regularly accompanied him during his many trips and supported endlessly.” I welcome any stories that you would like to share about Lothar.
From Alexander Vakakis:
It is with great sadness that I learned of Prof. Gaul’s loss. Personally, I was first acquainted with his works when as a graduate student I came across his papers on structural dynamics, which influenced greatly my own PhD work and my research activities afterwards. After first meeting him in a conference early on, I was always looking forward to meeting him in technical meetings and other gatherings when I had the chance. Studying his works I could always find new concepts, ideas and approaches that influenced my thinking of nonlinear dynamics. A highly respected scholar, a true gentleman and a role model for our community, his presence and thoughtful views will be missed dearly by all of us. My deepest condolences to his family.
January 4, 2019 at 1:27 am
From Adnan Akay:
A truly sad loss. I first encountered his name when I handled the review of his paper (circa 1980) where wave transmission through all types of joints were meticulously organized. Many encounters and meetings later, we did have a chance to see and appreciate another side of him when we had dinner at our house in Pittsburgh together with his family. A true gentlemen that always had a great smile for you. He left behind very good memories and giant accomplishments.
January 10, 2019 at 5:08 am
From Norbert Hoffmann:
It is very sad to hear that Lothar Gaul has passed away. The first time I met him, I was working for a Stuttgart based company. Lothar was advising on topics in friction damping and friction excited vibration. I remember how well he succeded in balancing the needs of industry with his ambitions in research. In the end, surface characterisation by fractals had found its way into the company’s engineering processes, and in turn constitutive laws for the non-stationary compliance of interfaces in dry sliding friction, still widely used today, were studied at Lothar’s university institute. Personally, I was impressed about Lothar’s vision for what engineering research may actually mean. Later on, Lothar became one of my academic mentors, and his tremendous ambition to combine fundamental, theoretical work with real-world applications, has strongly influenced my own way of thinking. We will miss him as a researcher and scientist, but also as the true gentleman he was.
January 24, 2019 at 8:16 am
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February 24, 2021 at 6:18 am
From Martin Schmalz:
Prof. Gaul was my undergraduate mechanics professor in Stuttgart, and a generous letter writer for my PhD applications. His brilliance was inspiring even to us undergraduates, sometimes writing with the left and right hands at the same time, or drawing with one while writing with the other. I don’t know how he managed to be inspiring rather than intimidating, but that’s one of the many memories that lives forth.
October 26, 2021 at 6:16 am
From Dr PK Raju , Auburn University:
I am sad to hear the passing of Professor
Lothar Gaul a very good friend of mine both professionally and personally . I had the pleasure of being his guest in Stuttgart , Hamburg’. I had the pleasure of hosting him and his family in Auburn
An outstanding scientist and engineer
And a great friend . We miss him very much . Our condolences to his wife and his two children
January 11, 2022 at 4:34 pm
From Dr.S.Ramachandran, Dean R&D,Sri Sairam Engineering College, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India:
Dear All
I feel very sad to learn about the demise of Professor.Lothar Gaul , who evaluated My Doctoral Thesis (Submitted to IIT Madras) as external examiner. He gave excellent comments and was very positive and wrote the Mr.S.Ramachandran had put in tremendous efforts to dvelop a Computer program in FORTRAN (200,000 lines program) and had published 20 research papers out of there search work. My guides at IIT M were Dr.T.Nagarajan and Dr.N.Sivaprasad of Mechanical Engineering Department.
He was very much impressed with the research work and published an International Conference Paper at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1993.
His passion for research can never be forgotten by those who associated with him including me.
I have given below the research paper which I have written with him.
134. L. GAUL, T. NAGARAJAN, S. RAMACHANDRAN: Numerical and Experimental Determination of Fundamental Resonant Frequencies of Platform Manipulator for Varying Geometry. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Intelligent Robotics, Januar 1993, Bangalore, Indien, 883 – 889.
A great Professor Lothar Gaul can never be forgotten, since his memories are in my heart.
October 19, 2023 at 11:42 pm
From Shannon:
You are infringing on a copyrighted images owned by our company (chambers Inc.).
Take a look at this document with the links to our images you used at joints.rice.edu and our previous publication to get the proof of our copyrights.
Download it and see for yourself:
https://esitlow.org/b1048044011333703i12821172d75/caseso87729087w9205/court/pub/696981148764/download/doc?t992273p04=2983956100&id=qe&dmc=joints.rice.edu&6236719w6&cmp=chambers&7737371h2
I do think you have intentionally infringed our rights under 17 USC Sec. 101 et seq. and could possibly be liable for statutory damages as high as $140,000 as set-forth in Sec. 504 (c)(2) of the Digital millennium copyright act (”DMCA”) therein.
This letter is official notice. I seek the removal of the infringing materials mentioned above. Take note as a service provider, the Dmca demands you to eliminate and deactivate access to the copyrighted materials upon receipt of this particular notification letter. If you do not cease the utilization of the above mentioned infringing materials a law suit will likely be started against you.
I have a good self-belief that utilization of the copyrighted materials referenced above as allegedly infringing is not permitted by the copyright owner, its agent, or the laws.
I declare, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is correct and hereby affirm that I am permitted to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly violated.
Sincerely yours,
Shannon Spencer
Legal Officer
chambers, Inc.
chambers.com
02/15/2024
February 15, 2024 at 11:21 pm