The Grainger College of Engineering

Thomas J. Dolan

Thomas J. Dolan
Thomas J. Dolan
To Thomas J. Dolan, for outstanding achievements as an engineer, teacher, and administrator; his research contributions in the fields of mechanical properties of materials and stress analysis have brought international recognition both to him and to the University.

Professor Emeritus of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Head of the Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • BS, Civil Engineering, 1929
  • MS, Civil Engineering, 1932

Professor Dolan's teaching career at the University spanned a period of forty-three years between 1929 and 1972. He was head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from 1952 to 1970.

He gained international recognition for his research on stress analysis and mechanical properties of materials. He received the R. L. Templin Award of the American Society for Testing and Materials for the development of new and useful methods of testing and the C. B. Dudley Medal of the ASTM for meritorious research on engineering materials. The Murray Lecture of the Society of Experimental Stress Analysis, which Professor Dolan presented in 1969, is given by an "outstanding authority in science or engineering." The Corten-Dolan Cumulative Damage Theory, published in 1956, is accepted worldwide as the most practical and useful method of analyzing for the fatigue life of structures and parts subjected to variable fatigue loading.

A prime contributor to engineering handbooks and manuals on designing and inspecting materials to avoid fracture, he has been involved in the preparation of internationally recognized standards of materials testing related to product safety. He is a fellow, ASTM; past national president, SESA; fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and past national vice president; and member, American Society for Engineering Education and Society of Automotive Engineers.

Current as of 1974.