CAYOLO-L Archives

From:
Subject: [CAYolo] An Tzu "Andy" YANG (abt. 1923-2003) (obit.)
Date: 26 Nov 2003 11:24:41 -0700

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: YANG
Classification: Obituary

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JY.2ADE/2955

Message Board Post:

An Tzu Yang

An Tzu "Andy" Yang, a UC Davis professor emeritus of mechanical engineering and husband of Ambassador Linda Tsao Yang, a former U.S. executive director to the Asian Development Bank, died Nov. 21, 2003, at Woodland Memorial Hospital with family and friends at his bedside. He was 80.

Born in Shanghai, China, he came from an academic family. His father, Pei-Feng Yang, was a professor of civil engineering and his sister, the late An-Jing Yang, was professor of material science, both at Jiao-Tong University.

In 1942 he escaped from Japanese-occupied Shanghai to free China, making the more than 1,000-mile journey on foot, ox cart, mule, train and whatever other modes of transportation he could find. He enrolled at the Northwestern College of Engineering in Xi'an, China, where he received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1946.

He came to the United States in early 1949 to study at the Ohio State University, where in 1918 his father earned his graduate degree. He graduated with a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1950. After holding several engineering positions in industry and teaching at the Institute of Mathematics in Porto Alegre, Brazil, he completed his doctorate in engineering science at Columbia University in 1963.

His dissertation, "Application of Quaternion Algebra and Dual Numbers to the Analysis of Spatial Mechanisms," was adopted by Columbia, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a text for graduate courses in spatial kinematics within two years of its publication. It was considered a landmark contribution that opened up the use of the so-called "screw theory" for researchers in mechanism design, robotics, biomechanics and computational geometry -- 40 years later, it remains one of the highly cited works in kinematics.

He joined the young UCD College of Engineering in 1964 as an assistant professor, and was a founding member of the department of mechanical engineering in 1965. His analytical work was quickly recognized nationally and internationally. Within five years of arriving at UCD, he had become a renowned researcher and leading figure in the field of mechanisms, kinematics and dynamics. A year later, he became a full professor. He retired in 1991.

Professor Emeritus Warren Giedt, the founding chair of the department of mechanical engineering, said of him, "I was lucky to have Andy on the faculty. He is a true scholar in the finest tradition. And he is a humble man."

Yang served the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the International Federation for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms and the National Science Foundation throughout his career as a technical editor, organizing technical conferences and as a peer reviewer. He was also named to state legislative advisory subcommittees, for the Assembly Committee on Economic Development and New Technologies and the California Legislature's Joint Committee on Science and Technology.

He received several awards, including a service award from the ASME's Applied Mechanics Review, ASME's Design Division Mechanisms Committee Award, Life Fellow status in ASME and an election into the New York Academy of Science.

Last year at ASME's Design Technical Conference in Montreal, Canada, a special technical session was dedicated to his research. His former doctoral students, colleagues and friends honored him at a pre-conference dinner for his 80th birthday. Both occasions brought him much joy and pleasure, his family said.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Linda Tsao Yang, and two sons and daughters-in law, Yuelin T. and Trina Chin Yang of Singapore and Eton Y. and Jenny Wang Yang of Davis.

A graveside service will be held Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the Davis Cemetery at Eighth Street and Pole Line Road. A celebration of his life will be held on Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. at the UCD Alumni & Visitors Center.

Donations in Yang's memory may be sent to the UCD Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Student Aid Fund; ASME Foundation, 3 Park Ave., 23W1, New York, NY 10016; The International House Davis, 10 College Park, Davis, CA 95616; Davis Chinese Christian Church, 536 Anderson Road, Davis, CA 95616; or to a charity of the donor's choice.

(Obituary from the "The Davis Enterprise," Tuesday, November 25, 2003, (Yolo County, California). Submitted with the permission of the "The Davis Enterprise," 315 G Street, Davis, CA 95616, <http://www.davisenterprise.com/>;. Please note: I am not related to the family listed above, and I do not have any further information on this family.)

This thread:

• [CAYolo] An Tzu "Andy" YANG (abt. 1923-2003) (obit.) by