GACLIT 75
Fall 2003
Wolfgang Knauss (BS ’58, MS ’59, PhD ’63)
Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics
Professor Knauss’s research interests are centered in solid mechanics
In the early 1980s, I became aware of the need to pursue materials issues at smaller and smaller size scales. It was extremely hard then to convince people of the need for this field—the phrase “nanomechanics”was to appear a decade later. I was very lucky to get $30,000 from the National Science Foundation to build, over a two years’ time span, a Scanning Tunneling Microscope to study deformations at the nanoscale. And today this kind of research is just the accepted thing. Colleagues fight for the millions in research funds in this area. But this kind of situation has always been a problem if you pursue a view of what’s going to be needed in the future: if you’re too early, support is tough to attract. However, Caltech has been an excellent place because it fosters reaching one’s potential. If you do things well and honestly, no one interferes.
