John Brand Martin, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape
Town and a well-known figure in the Mechanics community, died
suddenly on October 7th , 1999, aged 62 years.
John Martin was born on April 20th, 1937 in Durban, South Africa.
After graduating cum laude with a Bachelors degree in Civil
Engineering from the University of Natal in Durban, he pursued
doctoral studies at Cambridge University. As a student at Cambridge,
John was strongly influenced by the group of researchers led by Sir
John Baker, and which included Jacques Heyman, his graduate adviser.
This group had pioneered the application of plasticity theory to the
problems of structural design, and it was here that John Martin was
introduced to plasticity as a branch of mechanics. He was awarded a
PhD degree in 1962 for a thesis on the topic of rigid-plastic frames
and grids.
After Cambridge, John Martin moved to Brown University, and joined
the Division of Engineering as a Visiting Assistant Professor. A
tenure-track post soon followed, and by 1968, at the age of 31 years,
he had attained the rank of Full Professor.
The plasticity group at Brown was bigger than that at Cambridge, and
more diverse in its interests. It was in this group that John Martin
found his intellectual home, amongst esteemed researchers of the
calibre of William Prager, SR Bodner, DC Drucker, and PS Symonds;
among the younger Faculty were J.W. Duffy, M.E. Gurtin, E.T. Onat, A.C.
Pipkin and R.T. Shield, and this powerful group was to be joined a few
years later by other mechanicians who would add further lustre: R.J.
Clifton, L.B. Freund and J.R. Rice.
John Martin's initial research at Brown was in the area of rigid-
plastic stuctural dynamics, in which area he worked closely with Paul
Symonds. During his ten years at Brown he opened up two essentially
new branches of theory underlying approximate approaches to inelastic
problems in dynamics: the first class of methods was introduced by
his discovery of remarkably simple and elegant theorems for obtaining
upper bounds on the displacements in an impulsively loaded structure,
and lower bounds on the duration of the response. The second
concerned what subsequently became known as mode approximation
techniques, which provide an ingenious means for estimating the
deformation in a body by making use of simpler, modal solutions. John
Martin's magisterial works in these areas are today regarded as
milestones in the history of plasticity theory.
John shared a successful and very fruitful collaboration with Alan
Ponter and Fred Leckie during the period 1968 - 1970, during which
time a number of articles were written by this group on topics which
included extremum principles for inelastic materials, creep rupture,
and dual energy theorems.
Given John's rapid rise at Brown, his decision to return to South
Africa in 1973 came as a surprise to many. South Africa was becoming
further isolated and was the subject of intense criticism from the
world community as a result of the policy of apartheid. However, he
was driven by altruistic considerations, and wished to contribute, as
best he could, to his country's future. He assumed the Corporation
Chair of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town, or UCT as
it is widely known, in January 1973, and embarked on the second phase
of his career, in which he brought about fundamental changes to
Engineering at UCT. Guided by his belief that the fundamental aspects
of engineering science are vital to the future development of
engineering as a discipline and a profession, John Martin undertook a
comprehensive transformation of the curriculum, at the same time
promoting research activity in an environment in which research had
not been a high priority. He established a vibrant research group,
and attracted many graduate students, who worked with him on topics
such as minimum principles, the relationship between thermodynamics
and plasticity, and in the general area of rigid-plastic dynamics. By
the late 1970s his first works on internal variable theories of
inelastic material behaviour started to appear; this was to become an
enduring theme in his research.
In 1975 the monograph "Plasticity: Fundamentals and General Results"
by John Martin was published by MIT Press. It is a monumental work of
more than 900 pages, and served as a fine example of his mastery of
the subject, and of the extent to which he had contributed to its
development.
By the 1980s John had become Dean of Engineering at UCT, but was no
less active a researcher. His Centre for Research in Computational
and Applied Mechanics at UCT had, by 1989, been accorded a special
status by the Foundation for Research Development (the equivalent in
South Africa of the NSF) as result of the high quality of its work
and its importance as a national asset.
John Martin turned increasingly towards problems of a computational
nature within the area of inelastic material behaviour, and by the
early 1990s was devoting a considerable amount of his attention to
the development and analysis of algorithms for solving these classes
of problems. Much as he had approached his early work at Brown, he
looked beyond the mere construction of effective algorithms and
sought instead to understand the fundamental reasons underlying the
behaviour of these algorithms. His work was, like much of his earlier
contributions, characterised by elegance and the use of simple but
powerful and incisive arguments.
John's health received a major setback in 1991 when he suffered
kidney failure. Two unsuccessful kidney transplants followed.
Undaunted by these major medical problems, and contrary to the
expectations of many that he would start to "slow down", he sought,
and was offered, the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UCT in
1996. This is a senior executive position, and he was responsible for
the major portfolios of research and human resource development.
Three years later, having served with distinction in this position,
John Martin collapsed and died at the university about which he cared
so much, and to which he had given a great part of his life.
John Martin received many honours during his lifetime. He was a
Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of Mechanical
Engineers, and of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers.
He was Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, and in 1990
received its John F.W. Herschel medal, which recognises outstanding
scientific achievement. He was awarded two honorary doctorates, one
from his alma mater Natal University in 1995, and another by UCT, in
June 1999.
John was a modest and reserved man who shunned the limelight, and who
tended to be embarrassed by the many accolades that came his way. He
was an immensely generous person, to both colleagues and students,
and earned the deep respect and affection of many. We mourn the loss
of a great scholar, gentleman and loyal South African. He is survived
by his widow Jill, their three sons Neil, Andrew and Peter, and two
grandsons.
Daya Reddy
Cape Town
November 7th, 1999
Comments and Suggestions to mech1@clifton.mech.northwestern.edu