This
interview is with Richard
M. Christensen, Professor Emeritus of Applied Science. He was appointed in Applied Science, which at that time was a
cooperative program between UC Davis and the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. Before coming to Davis, Dr. Christensen worked in the aerospace
industry, was an engineer at Shell, and taught at the University of Southern
California, the University of California, Berkeley, among others. His work is
focused on those circumstances wherein materials shift from safe or acceptable
states of stress to states of failure. As a measure of his success, Professor Emeritus
Christensen was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987. Other
awards and honors include the Worcester Reed Warner Gold Medal from the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the William Prager Medal
for Research in solid mechanics from the Society of Engineering Science. In
1992, he was installed as an Honorary Member of ASME, the highest honor
conferred by that organization, recognizing lifetime achievement. Later, he was
awarded the ASME’s Nadai Medal to recognize his many accomplishments in
materials engineering. He is interviewed by his friend and colleague, Yin Yeh,
Professor Emeritus of Applied Science..
