James H. Williams, Jr. MIT: Room 3-358 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139  (USA) Phone & voicemail: +1 617.253.2221 E-mail: jhwill@mit.edu

About Professor Williams:

James H. Williams, Jr. (S.B. and S.M. — Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. — Trinity College, University of Cambridge) is the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Excellence, Charles F. Hopewell Faculty Fellow, and Professor of Applied Mechanics in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Professor of Writing and Humanistic Studies in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. He has received many awards and published numerous papers and reports in conjunction with his teaching, consulting, and research in the mechanical characterization of advanced fiber reinforced composites; wave propagation in large space structures; in-process and post-process quality control; reliability; dynamic fracture; nondestructive evaluation with emphasis on acoustic emission, thermal, and ultrasonic responses of composites; dynamic behavior of structures subjected to seismic excitation; and the development of computerized database systems for composite materials selection. He has been interviewed, cited, or featured in hundreds of newspaper, magazine, and broadcast media pieces. These pieces have included worldwide popular print media such as People, Playboy Fashion, Time-Life, L'Uomo Vogue, Vanity Fair, Wired, several biographical anthologies, and newspaper articles in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Formerly, as a senior design engineer at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, he performed a broad range of mechanics calculations on both industrial and governmental systems including, for example, stress and dynamical analyses of catapults, turbines, and propulsion shafting on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68), as well as overall ship accelerations and turning radii under various loading conditions. He has also conducted dozens of major multi-year consultations for the US government and international corporations involving a multiplicity of structural systems on high-performance aircraft, automobiles, rockets, offshore oil platforms, and hydroelectric power generation stations. If unavailable at his office, he can likely be found attempting to hit a 200-yard three-iron to an elevated green somewhere in the Boston area.

Prepared Fall 2019 Presentation to MIT Mechanical Engineering Faculty:

• Wave Propagation---An Introduction to Engineering Analyses

Selected Non-Technical Articles:

• Sending MIT Students to War with Water Pistols, The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XXXVI No. 2, November/December 2023.
  
  
• Mens, Manus et Cor, The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XXXIV No. 1, September/October 2021.
  
  
• 3 Questions with Professor James H. Williams, Jr., MIT News, June 17, 2020.
  
  
• A Magical, Almost Perfect, Season, The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XXVII No. 3, January/February 2015.
  
  
• Stirring the pot at MIT:  Professor's account of discussing race, diversity, and inclusion sparks an impassioned response. Column by Alex Beam, The Boston Globe, October 25, 2011.
  
  
• Commenting on “Departmental Discussions of Diversity and Inclusion,” The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XXIV No. 1, September/October 2011.
  
  
• Flight 587: published as “Closer Inspection of a Flight Risk,” The Baltimore Sun, May 6, 2002. See also Guest Column in Air Safety Week, “Crash Should Prompt a Change in Composite Inspection Philosophy,” July 29, 2002. [Related broadcast and print items: WNBC-TV Evening News, “Materials Used May Have Caused Crash — Airbus: Visual Inspection Flaw?,” February 7, 2002; MIT Tech Talk, “Flight risk of Airbus's A300-600 jet needs closer inspection, says prof,” May 8, 2002; Air Safety Week, June 17, 2002; The Boston Globe, Letters to the Editor, “Inspection of Aircraft Parts,” July 3, 2002; ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, “Airbus' Fatal Flaws?,” August 5, 2002; ABC World News Now, August 6, 2002; Numerous citations on network television news outlets, including CBS, CNBC, CNN, and NBC, August 2002; Invited to appear before the New York City Council on behalf of Resolution 100 to the United States House of Representatives (“Flight 587” was inserted into the record), September 5, 2002; Vanity Fair, “Pilot Terror” by David Rose, September 2002; The Observer, “What made an Airbus rudder snap in mid-air?” by David Rose, March 12, 2005.]

  As of March 24, 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board appeared to acknowledge the error of its previous analyses and dispositions concerning the inspection of Airbus A300 composite rudders by virtue of its “urgent recommendation” and “immediate release” of Safety Recommendations A-06-27 and A-06-28: “NTSB Urges Inspections of Certain Airbus A300 Rudders.” Furthermore and finally, Airbus has also changed its inspection policies: “Airbus has stepped up inspections on the composite vertical stabilizers on about 400 of its oldest planes,” CompositesWorld.Com, December 4, 2007/December 27, 2007; and “Rigorous Airbus Rudder Checks Now Required,” Sky Talk, December 19, 2007.
  
  

• A Formal Recommendation to the MIT Corporation, The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XVI No. 4, February/March 2004.
  
  
• Golf Courses and The Wall of Slavery, The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XIII No. 3, January/February 2001.
  
  
• MIT Professor Williams to help develop writing courses for engineering students, MIT Tech Talk, November 17, 2000.
  
  
• Does MIT Have a Leading Role to Play?, The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. X No. 4, January/February 1998.
  
  
• Dilemmas, Colonialism, and Protest, The MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. III No. 5, March 1991. (Numerous international, national, and local print articles and broadcast stories reporting fasting sit-in protest.)
  
  

• Fundamentals of Applied Dynamics, 854 pp., 1996.
  
  
• Fundamentals of Applied Dynamics, 858 pp., 2019.
  
  
• Wave Propagation—An Introduction to Engineering Analyses , 426 pp., 2019.
  
  

• Mechanical Engineering Graduate Writing Survey, MIT, January, 2001.
  
  
• Mechanical Engineering Graduate Writing Survey: Results, MIT, March, 2001.
  
  (Note: Access to detailed survey results is limited to MIT on-campus network.)
  
  

(Professor Williams has several hundred publications in refereed journals, conferences, and major reports to industrial and governmental agencies.)