College of

Engineering, Architecture and Technology

 

At the age of 90 Kerry S. Havner, an alumnus from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Oklahoma State University, has published his second advanced book in Engineering Sciences titled The Mechanics of Finite Deformation with Applications in Metal Plasticity. The book is intended as both a graduate-level text and a research-related reference work. Providing a comprehensive background for analysis of the finite deformation of materials, this book is geared toward engineering scientists, applied mathematicians, and advanced students beginning their studies in the field.

 

Havner received all three of his degrees in civil engineering at OSU, his B.S. in 1955, his M.S. in 1956 and his Ph.D. in 1959.  His Ph.D. degree is of historic note as it was the first from the School of Civil Engineering, conferred on August 8, 1959.

Havner is an active Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (solid mechanics) and in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University.  In addition to being a triple-alumnus of OSU, with several endowments in his and his late wife Roberta’s names, he was a faculty member at OSU in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1957-1962.

Havner’s professional career spans 67 years, with almost continuous research funding from 1957 to 1999, including six years in aerospace R&D and nine multi-year National Science Foundation awards (1971-1999) at North Carolina State University.  He has presented research papers and invited lectures in numerous countries and universities worldwide (1967-2019), with published works in 10 volumes and 17 different journals (1958-2020), including Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Philosophical Magazine, International Journal of Plasticity, and Journal of Engineering Mechanics (ASCE).

 

Havner has twice been a Senior Visitor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK where, in 1989, he began writing his research monograph, Finite Plastic Deformation of Crystalline Solids, Cambridge University Press, 1992 (Paperback Re-issue, 2008). He began research in finite deformation in 1970 with an emphasis on metal plasticity and taught the subject (among other solid mechanics courses) from 1971 to 1999.

 

Havner was inducted into the CEAT Hall of Fame and was awarded the Lohmann Medal in 1994 for his distinguished contributions in solid mechanics, materials science, and engineering education and research.

 

Roberta, also an OSU alumnus, received her B.S. in the School of Commerce in 1954, and a M.S. in Business Education in 1957.  She was a secretary at OSU’s Placement Bureau from 1954-1955 and taught business subjects at Perkins High School from 1955-1956.  Kerry and Roberta’s children were all born in Stillwater (1956, 1959, and 1962).