- Chenfeng Li, Chenfeng Li / Swansea University
- F.M. Andread Pires, University of Porto
This symposium is dedicated to Professor Roger Owen in honor of his scientific achievements. D Roger J Owen, an inspirational pioneer and leader in computational mechanics and engineering computations, has made extraordinary fundamental contributions to many fronts in these fields as well as their application in solving real-world engineering problems.
Professor Owen is the author of seven textbooks and over four hundred and fifty scientific publications. In addition to being the editor of more than thirty monographs and conference proceedings, he was until recently the engineering editor of the Proceedings of the Royal Society and is a member of several Editorial Boards. His involvement in academic research has led to the supervision of over seventy Ph.D. students. Professor Owen is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Royal Society, Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In 1985, Prof. Owen formed Rockfield Software Ltd. aimed at disseminating his academic research based on computational modelling procedures to the industrial sector. The company, initially employing two engineers, was based in the Innovation Centre at Swansea University. Over subsequent years Rockfield Software has expanded to over 30 personnel, with over two thirds of the staff possessing Ph.D. degrees, making the company a leading employer of high technology graduates in the Swansea area. The success of the company has led, under Prof. Owen's Chairmanship, to the granting of the Queen's Award for Innovation on two separate occasions, in 2002 and 2007.
Over the past decades, the technology of computational mechanics and engineering computations has transformed industrial practice in almost all engineering sectors. In addition to tributes from friends, colleagues, former students and associates of Roger Owen, this symposium welcomes contributions in the broadest context of engineering computations, especially their successful applications to real-world problems.