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Miklós Hetényi

1906 – 1984

Hungarian American mechanical engineer

Engineer Mechanical engineer Applied mathematician
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About Miklós Hetényi

Lived 1906 – 1984 (aged 77). Miklós Hetényi was a Hungarian engineer, mechanical engineer and applied mathematician.

Miklós Imre Hetényi (5 November 1906 – 31 October 1984) was a Hungarian-American engineer. He was a professor at Stanford University and held numerous service roles in the Society for Experimental Stress Analysis (SESA) (now the Society for Experimental Mechanics) including as the second President of the society from 1944 to 1945. His parents were Géza Hetényi and Etelka Jakab (1864–1956). He died at his desk at home on the Stanford campus while working on a structural mechanics book.

Education Hetényi obtained a degree in civil engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 1931. He pursued graduate work with Harold M. Westerguard (from what is now the Grainger College of Engineering) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1934 to 1935, and obtained a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1936, supervised by Stephen Timoshenko. It is said he was one of Timoshenko's favorite students and that he worked closely with Ray Mindlin and Dan Drucker on experimental work. and continued to teach until his retirement in 1972. He was chair of the Stanford Applied Mechanics Department from 1965 to 1969. He made seminal contributions to the field of mechanics including three-dimensional photoelasticity, the Reduction Method for the analysis of continuous frames and the Method of Initial Parameters. He was the second President of the Society for Experimental Stress Analysis (SESA) (now Society for Experimental Mechanics) from 1944 to 1945. He is considered one of the four founding members of the society along with Charles Lipson, Raymond D. Mindlin and William M. Murray. SESA initiated the Hetényi Award in his honor in 1967 for the best research paper published in Experimental Mechanics. Hetényi gave the Murray Lecture in 1954 and was named the second Honorary Member of the Society in 1956, a position held until his death in 1984. SEM Honorary Member (1956 to 1984) SEM/SESA Founder Award (1969) SEM Fellow (1975) ASME Honorary Member (1973)

Translation This article is based in part or in whole on a translation of this version of the Portuguese Wikipedia and this version of the Hungarian Wikipedia article Miklós Hetényi. The editors of the original article are listed in its page history. This indication merely indicates the origin of the wording and does not serve as a source for the information in this article.

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Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Education
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, University of Michigan, Stanford University
Also known as
Miklós Imre Hetényi

People in Miklós Hetényi's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Miklós Hetényi's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Miklós Hetényi?

Hungarian American mechanical engineer

When was Miklós Hetényi born?

Miklós Hetényi was born on 5 November 1906 in Debrecen.

When did Miklós Hetényi die?

Miklós Hetényi died on 31 October 1984 in Stanford.

What was Miklós Hetényi's occupation?

Miklós Hetényi was an engineer, mechanical engineer and applied mathematician.

What nationality was Miklós Hetényi?

Miklós Hetényi was Hungarian.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Miklós Hetényi

· Wikidata: Q24013828

· DBpedia: Miklós Hetényi

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Miklós Hetényi. https://biography.guide/miklos-hetenyi/

MLA: "Miklós Hetényi." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/miklos-hetenyi/.

Chicago: "Miklós Hetényi." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/miklos-hetenyi/.

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