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ALFRED MARTIN FREUDENTHAL
1906-1977
BY HAROLD LIEBOWITZ
A EFRED M. FREUDENTHAL, Professor Emeritus of Civil Materials
Engineering, died on September 27, 1977. His death takes from
the George Washington University a man in whom extraordinary
abilities in research, teaching, and engineering practice were richly
complemented by those qualities of absolute integrity, unceasing
interest in and intellectual curiosity about the world around him,
and generosity of spirit.
Professor Freudenthal was one of the seminal engineers and
scholars of his era. In 1975, to commemorate his exceptional
contributions, the American Society of Civil Engineers established
the Freudenthal Medal "in honor of his outstanding accomplish-
ments in research, teaching, and engineering practice," to be
awarded biannually to an individual in recognition of distinguished
achievement in the area of safety and reliability applied to civil
. .
englneerlog.
Professor Freudenthal was born in Poland on February 12, 1906,
and his education was the best that one could receive in Europe.
He was awarded a degree in civil engineering in 1929 in Prague
and in 1932 in Lwow. In 1930 he was awarded the degree of
Doctor of Technical Sciences by the German Technical University
in Prague on the basis on his dissertation on the theory of plasticity.
Professor Freudenthal started his professional career in 1930 as
a structural designer. In 1935 he emigrated to Palestine (Israel)
where he became the Chief Structural Engineer and subsequently
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the Resident Engineer in planning, construction, and technical
administration of a new port in Tel Aviv between 1936 and 1946.
In 1936 he accepted an appointment as Lecturer, later as Professor
of Bridge Engineering at the Hebrew Institute of Technology in
Haifa.
In 1947, on the basis of a paper on the statistical aspects of
fatigue, he was invited to visit the United States and to lecture at
several universities. In that year, he accepted an appointment with
the University of Illinois as Visiting Professor of Theoretical and
Applied Mechanics.
Between 1949 and 1969, he held an appointment as Professor of
Civil Engineering at Columbia University. In 1969, he joined the
faculty of the George Washington University as Professor of Civil
and Materials Engineering and Director of the Institute for the
Study of Fatigue and Structural Reliability. The Institute was
transferred from Columbia University, where it had been in opera-
tion since 1962.
Under Professor Freudenthal's leadership, the Institute acquired
a worldwide reputation in fatigue research, which included basic
research both in the metal physics aspects of fatigue as well as in the
development of a new methodology in the risk and reliability
assessment of structures dominated by fatigue. It was for this
pioneering work that the technical community awarded Professor
Freudenthal the unique accolade by referring to him as the
"father" of structural reliability.
Among his many honors and awards, he twice received the
Norman Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers; he
also received the Swedish Aeronautical Society Medal and the van
Karman Medal, to name a few. He was elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 1976. He was the author of seven
books and about 150 papers, which were published in technical and
scientific journals.
Professor Freudenthal was a truly educated person with a
lifelong interest in science, technology, art, music, literature, phi-
losophy, and world events. He could always be called on as a friend
and counselor and his sage advice guided many of the faculty and
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students through both personal and professional difficulties. He
gave of himself unstintingly when help was needed.
The legacy of Alfred M. Freudenthal lies in his outstanding
research and original thinking, which will long endure. His lasting
accomplishments are a satisfaction to those of us who were fortu-
nate to know this good and gifted man.
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C~. CAM
Representative terms from entire chapter:
structural reliability
