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Distinguished University Professor and Minta Martin Professor Balakumar Balachandran has been chosen by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to receive its Thomas K. Caughey Dynamics Medal. The honor will be conferred formally during ASME’s annual meeting in November.
Balachandran is an internationally-recognized expert on applied mathematics, nonlinear phenomena, and dynamics and control who has authored seminal articles and textbooks while earning some of the most prestigious accolades in engineering. He served as Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 2011 to 2023.
The Caughey medal, established by ASME in 2008, is named for Thomas K. Caughey, a California Institute of Technology professor who made pioneering contributions to nonlinear dynamics and vibrations and stochastic nonlinear systems.
Firdaus Udwadia, Professor Emeritus of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering/Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, knew Caughey personally and said he would have been pleased by Balachandran’s selection.
“It was my good fortune to have had Professor Tom Caughey of Caltech as my teacher and mentor, later as a colleague, and ultimately as a friend over a span of some forty years,” Udwadia said. “Professor Caughey was a world-renowned pioneer in nonlinear and stochastic dynamics, and I am certain he would have been delighted to see Professor Balachandran receive the Caughey Medal in recognition of his distinguished career and seminal contributions to nonlinear dynamics and vibrations with far-reaching practical applications.”
Those contributions have earned Balachandran many prior awards and honors. Four years ago, he became one of only two UMD faculty members to receive the coveted Den Hartog Award from ASME; the same year, the organization also conferred upon him the Lyapunov Award. A year later, the Engineering Mechanics Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers awarded him the Robert H. Scanlan Medal. Two years ago, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awarded him the Pendray Aerospace Literature Award. He becomes the first recipient of the Caughey Medal at the University of Maryland.
He continues to conduct innovative and impactful research across many fields, including development of a tool for predicting rogue waves that pose a threat to ships and oil rigs. He holds an affiliate faculty appointment in aerospace engineering in addition to his faculty position in mechanical engineering, and is a member of UMD’s Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation faculty.
October 14, 2025
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