NORTH OLMSTED, OH, November 14, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present John P. Gyekenyesi, Ph.D., P.E. with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Gyekenyesi celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. John P Gyekenyesi has made many visionary, pioneering and critical contributions during his 51 year federal employee career to high temperature structures, design methods developments, and advanced materials for major programs of NASA, DOE, other agencies, and the Aerospace Industry. He started his professional career at NASA in 1962 and spent the first 10 years as a mechanical design engineer, analyzing turbine engine components, rocket engines and laboratory test equipment for durability and life under various loading and environmental conditions. He helped establish structural integrity and inspection intervals for long duration facilities with pressure vessels, wind tunnels, nuclear reactor components and engine test equipment. He was among the first NASA-GRC engineers to widely employ computer methods for structural analyses and damage tolerance design. During the 1960's, NASA was totally focused on beating the Russians in getting first to the moon. The Cleveland Center was assigned the development of high energy cryogenic propellants rocket propulsion, a critical technology needed to accomplish this goal. Dr. Gyekenyesi played the major role in cryogenic engineering at the Laboratory, designing propellant tanks, piping, rocket injector systems for stable combustion and other important rocket testing equipment. From 1972 to 1982, he worked as a senior scientist specializing in fatigue and fracture studies of advanced materials, including ceramics and brittle composites. He developed the method of lines (MOL) for 3-dimensional crack problems, and obtained previously unavailable solutions for crack stress-intensity factors. These stress-intensity factors are necessary for prediction of fracture and fatigue crack growth. The development of this method instigated a number of university and NASA researches to extend MOL to elasto-plastic solutions of crack tip stress fields. This seminal work led to an international conference and the extension of MOL to other disciplines such as fluid flow and heat transfer.
In order to increase the efficiency and decrease harmful emissions of various engines, structural ceramics are being introduced into turbines, piston engines, and other propulsion systems. Due to the stochastic strength and durability behavior of these materials, probabilistic design methods are needed which are implemented in new computer programs that were integrated with commercial finite element codes. These methods are revolutionizing the way all brittle material structures are designed for specified reliability and risk. Dr. Gyekenyesi's major contribution, the CARES computer program for the reliability analysis of ceramic components, is used worldwide by more than 900 organizations. This work also led to an international scientific agreement between NASA and the Japanese Government. He spent extensive time in the Far East teaching the host country engineers on how to design with brittle materials. He made similar trips to most of Western Europe, and even today the CARES program is the flagship of the industry for life prediction of ceramic structures. The NASA Inventions and Contributions Board, in 2003, has estimated the value of his technical contributions to society in excess of many billion $. CARES is widely used in the aerospace, energy, nuclear, electronics, automotive, chemical, defense, and medical industries whenever brittle materials like ceramics, graphite and glass are under tensile loads.
Dr. Gyekenyesi held several leadership positions over 20 years in several levels of the organization. Under his guidance, his staff conducted research in physics-based deformation and life prediction models and validated computer codes via mechanical and benchmark experiments. Fatigue, fracture and creep rupture were investigated in high value added aerospace structures and materials. Novel diagnostic and prognostic procedures were developed for high precision material characterization and structural integrity health monitoring. Dr. Gyekenyesi has demonstrated leadership and scientific expertise in building, guiding a very technically diverse staff to national prominence and international recognition. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, and member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). As member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) during the last 5 years, Dr. Gyekenyesi's recent work focused on establishing best practices for safety and reliable spacecraft structural systems throughout the agency.
In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Dr. Gyekenyesi received numerous awards. Several of his scientific publications were recognizes as Best Technical Papers in Structures by GRC, ASME and ACerS. He was the leader of the team that received NASA's first ever Software of the Year Award in 1994. R&D Magazine awarded the prestigious R&D 100 Award to him in 1995, and NASA GRC recognized his work with the Steve Szabo Excellence in Engineering Award. He also helped GRC in receiving The ACerS Corporate Technical Award and the Enterprise Development, Inc. Innovation Award in 1998. He was honored by the Consortium of Federal Laboratories when in 1994 he was given their Excellence in Technology Transfer Award. Recently he also received two NASA Turning Goals into Reality (TGIR) awards for his contributions in probabilistic analysis and ceramic composite technology.
Dr. Gyekenyesi epitomizes the definition of the NASA research engineer. He is an internationally recognized technical expert on high temperature structures, a leader of research engineers and is versatile in many areas outside his own with willingness and ability to take on new challenges. In addition to advancing state -of-the- art technology, Dr Gyekenyesi has been very effective in mentoring graduate students and junior colleagues. He served as an adjunct professor at the Cleveland State University and has energetically supported NASA's diversity goals in recruiting and building his branch staff. Dr. Gyekenyesi is a native of Hungary whose family fled from Europe upon the invasion of their homeland by the Red Army. He and his first wife Erika (deceased) have three adult sons, all mechanical engineers who work at NASA- GRC. He currently lives with his second wife Iren.
In addition to Dr. Gyekenyesi's scientific career, he has accomplished a lot in his lifelong love of soccer. Played at the highest amateur level for 20 years, became president of Ohio's best amateur league, joined a professional Cleveland Team and has been Northern Ohio Soccer President for 27 years. He was inducted into the Ohio Soccer Hall of Fame as well as the USASA Soccer Hall of Fame. Recently, (in 2018) played a major role with FIFA to secure the 2026 World Cup Finals mostly to the USA.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, John P. Gyekenyesi, Ph.D., P.E. has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
PERSONAL DATA: GYEKENYESI, JOHN PAUL, mechanical engineer; arrived in US,1951, naturalized 1957; s George Laszlo and Katherine (Korcsmar) G.; m. Erika Eva Sari, Jun.17,1961 (dec.); children: John, Thomas, Andrew; m. Iren Olvaso 2007. BSME, Case Inst. Tech., 1961, MSME 1966, PhD in Mechanics Mich. St. U., 1972. Registered profl. engr., Ohio. Test engr. Ohio Crankshaft Ohio Co. Cleve., 1961-62; from design engr. to sr. engr. structures divsn. NASA- Glenn Rsch. Ctr., Cleve.,1962-2004,sr.engr. structures and material divsn. 2004-13. Cons. in structures Sari Corp., Cleve.,1978-90. adj.prof. mechanics Cleve. State U. 2007- . Contbr. over 80 articles to profl.jours., chapters to books.
Photo captions:
(1) Official NASA GRC photograph of Dr. John P Gyekenyesi. (2011)
(2) NASA Administrator, Dr. Daniel Goldin (left), presenting Dr. Gyekenyesi with a Certificate for winning the first NASA Software of the Year Award. The widely used software for predicting fatigue and fracture in ceramic turbine engine components was distributed worldwide, close to a thousand organizations. (1994)
(3) Manager Dr. John P Gyekenyesi (third from left in first row) and his Life Prediction Branch (NASA-GRC) of Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics Researchers. One of NASA's largest mechanics of materials research department. (1998)
(4) US President Jimmy Carter welcoming Dr. John P Gyekenyesi to the White House Meeting with US Soccer Officials. (1980)
(5) Dr. Gyekenyesi and his wife Iren campaigning successfully with current FIFA Vice President Dr. Sandor Csanyi in Budapest to hold the 2026 Soccer World Cup Finals mostly in the USA. (2018)
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