Professor John H. Lienhard V Elected Honorary Member of ASME
Honorary Membership is one of the highest honors bestowed by the ASME Board of Governors
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Board of Governors has elected Professor John H. Lienhard V as an Honorary Member. The prestigious recognition is awarded for a lifetime of service in engineering or a related field, such as science, research, or public service, with the achievement described as "distinguished service that contributes significantly to the attainment of the goals of the engineering profession."
Lienhard was unanimously elected in recognition of "sustained contributions to thermodynamic and transport process engineering through modeling, experimentation, design, and patents; for a pioneering, open-access textbook; and for leadership in sustainability research in academia.”
First awarded in 1880, the year the society was founded, Honorary Membership is one of the highest honors bestowed by the ASME Board of Governors. Each year, up to five members of the society are selected for distinguished contributions to the engineering profession. For Lienhard, the honor is something of a legacy.
“I have been around ASME for my entire life. As a child, our family vacations usually involved accompanying my father to an ASME conference,” says Lienhard. “Perhaps unsurprisingly, I followed the same path and gave my first ASME conference paper in 1983.”
His father, John H. Lienhard IV, also achieved Honorary Member status. He was elected in 1995. Previous ASME Honorary Members from MIT MechE include: Professors Ascher Shapiro, Stephen Crandall, Warren Roshenow, Carl Soderberg, Joseph Keenan, J.P. Den Hartog, and Jerome Hunsaker.
“Today, as I look at the list of Honorary Members, I am utterly humbled by the achievements of past recipients,” Lienhard says. “I see how exclusive this group is, with only about 100 living Honorary Members. I very grateful for this recognition.”
Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, director of the Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories, and former MechE department head says Lienhard’s election as an Honorary Member of ASME is “a richly deserved recognition of a career defined by innovation, impact, and unwavering dedication.”
“A visionary in clean water technology, [Lienhard’s] work has led to practical, real-world solutions with global significance,” says Chen. “He is also a pioneer in providing free, high-quality online textbooks. His influential books on heat transfer and measurement techniques have educated and inspired generations of engineers. This honor acknowledges not only his outstanding technical contributions, but also his lasting legacy as a leader, educator, and champion of accessible engineering knowledge.”