Arthur E. Bryson, Jr.

Biography

Arthur Bryson attended Haverford College and Iowa State University (B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering, 1946) and served as an aircraft maintenance officer in the U.S. Navy in World War II. After the war, he worked as a paper mill engineer with the Container Corporation of America and then as a wind tunnel engineer in the Research Department of the United Aircraft Corporation, before graduate study. Professor Bryson received a Ph.D. in Aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology in 1951 and then worked as an aeronautical engineer at the Hughes Aircraft Company. In 1953 he went to Harvard University as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was appointed Associate Professor in 1956 and Professor in 1961. In 1968 he went to Stanford University as Professor of Applied Mechanics, Aeronautics, and Astronautics; Chairman of Department of Applied Mechanics, 1969-71; Chairman of Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1971-79, Pigott Professor of Engineering Emeritus, Stanford University.

Professor Bryson has done consulting work for several aerospace companies. He has authored 110 technical papers on fluid mechanics, flight mechanics, and automatic control. Co-author with Y. C. Ho of "Applied Optimal Control," Hemisphere Publishing Company, Washington, D.C., 1975 (second printing).

Professor Bryson's affiliations and honors include Technical Director of AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), 1965-68 and Associate Editor, AIAA Journal, 1963-66, Jerome Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, 1965-66. Chairman of the National Committee for Fluid Mechanics Films, 1964-68. Engineering Concepts Curriculum Project, summers 1965 and 1966. Fellow of AIAA and of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education), Sigma Xi, and Thu Beta Pi. AIAA Pendray Award, 1968. Westinghouse Award of ASEE, 1969. AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award, 1980. ASME Rufus Oldenburger Award, 1980. Anson Marston Medal for Achievement in Engineering, Iowa State University,June 1982. The Education Award from American Automatic Control Council (AIAA, AIChE, ASME, ISA, SME), June 1982. AIAA Dryden Lecturer, 1984. IEEE Control Systems Science Award, 1984. Elected to National Academy of Engineering (NAE), 1970. Elected to National Academy of Sciences, 1973. Member Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of NRC, 1970-79; (Chairman 1976-78).