To help midcareer faculty in Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering who want to change their research direction, the family of the late Howard N. McManus Jr. has established an endowed faculty research award and graduate fellowship fund. The award and fund honor McManus (1921-1974), who was a Sibley professor from 1957 until his death.
"We recognize that it can be difficult for senior faculty to deviate from the relatively narrow range of research activity in which his or her reputation was made and that the Sibley School mission may be better served by senior faculty moving toward new areas of scholarship," said McManus' daughter, Eileen McManus Walker '76, MBA '78, who with her husband, Jay Walker '76, took the lead in establishing the fund. Other family members involved in the award are McManus' widow, Lois, and his other children, Donald '84, Keith '91, Howard '78 and Patricia Friar '79, MBA '92.
"The intent of the award is to revitalize academic careers to the mutual benefit of the scholar and the Sibley School," said Eileen Walker.
"The Howard N. McManus Jr. Faculty Research Award and Graduate Fellowship Fund is an appropriate tribute to a most remarkable man," said W. Kent Fuchs, dean of the College of Engineering. "I know that the late Professor McManus left an indelible impression as teacher, mentor and friend. Providing support for midcareer faculty members who want to work in new areas is a fitting way to remember Howard McManus and fills a strategic and, until now, unmet need for the department."
Sidney Leibovich, professor and the Y.Y. Sze Director of the Sibley School, said, "This is a very important gift for the future of the school and is unique in the country in its designation for midcareer faculty career changes."
McManus' area of research was heat transfer and related areas of fluid mechanics. He was instrumental in shaping thermal engineering in new and fundamental directions that were sweeping engineering nationally in the wake of the Soviet Union's launch of the world's first artificial satellite in 1957. Under his chairmanship, which began in 1968, the Department of Mechanical Design changed its name to Mechanical Systems and Design to reflect an enlarged view of the mission of design. McManus stressed that design was changing complex systems whose purpose was to transform motion into energy and energy into motion, from power generation stations to rockets and space vehicles.
A process to select recipients of the award will be initiated in the Sibley School in the fall of 2002. In years that no faculty proposals are submitted, the accrued income will be used for a fellowship to a graduate student chosen from the department's most outstanding applicants.
At the time of McManus' death, friends and family members established the annual Howard N. McManus Jr. Design Award in his honor.
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