Henry Yang

Henry T. Yang joined UC Santa Barbara as chancellor and professor of mechanical engineering in 1994. In addition to serving as chancellor, he continues to teach one or two courses each year and is currently guiding three Ph.D. students. He was formerly the Neil A. Armstrong Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, where he also served as the dean of engineering for ten years, and as director of the Computer Integrated Design, Manufacturing, and Automation Center. Yang has authored or co-authored around 175 articles for scientific journals (including 46 articles since becoming chancellor), served as P.I. or co-P.I. for 35 sponsored research grants (including 11 NSF grants since becoming chancellor), guided 54 Ph.D. theses (including 14 since becoming chancellor), and received 13 outstanding undergraduate teaching awards (including an honorary distinguished teaching award from UCSB's Academic Senate). His book Finite Element Structural Analysis, published by Prentice-Hall, has been adopted by many universities and has also been published in Japanese and Chinese.
Yang has served on a number of advisory boards, including the Defense Science Board, USAF Scientific Advisory Board, Naval Research Advisory Committee, NASA's Aeronautical Advisory Committee, and the National Science Foundation's Engineering Advisory Committee. He is currently the chair of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, and the immediate past chair of the Association of American Universities. He is also a member of the Kavli Foundation Board and the President’s Committee for the National Medal of Science, and is serving as chair of the non-profit TMT Observatory Corporation overseeing the Thirty Meter Telescope project.