ASME Past President Arthur Bergles Dies
ASME Past President Arthur Bergles Dies
Arthur "Art" E. Bergles, Ph.D., P.E., the 109th president of ASME as well as an ASME Honorary Member and Fellow, passed away on March 17. A resident of Centerville, Mass., Dr. Bergles was 78 years old.
Bergles, the son of Austrian immigrants Edward and Victoria Bergles, was born in New York City in 1935. The family moved to Rhinebeck, N.Y., several years later. In 1953, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he would go on to complete a combined bachelor's and master's degree in engineering and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. During this time, he also spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the Technical University in Munich, Germany, and met his future wife Priscilla "Penny" Maule, who was a student at Boston University.
From 1962-1969, Bergles served on the MIT faculty, as associate professor of engineering, chairman of the Engineering Projects Laboratory, and associate director of the Heat Transfer Laboratory. In 1970, he joined the Georgia Institute of Technology faculty as professor of mechanical engineering before moving two years later to Iowa State University, where he served as chair of the mechanical engineering department and Anson-Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering. While at Iowa State, he was awarded a fellowship from the Alexander von Humbolt Foundation and spent a year with his family as a visiting professor at the University of Hannover in Germany.
In 1986, Bergles moved to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he served as the Clark and Crossan Professor of Engineering and director of the Heat Transfer Laboratory before becoming dean of engineering in 1989. After his retirement in 1997, Bergles remained active, serving as Clark-Crossan Professor Emeritus at Rensselaer, Senior Lecturer at MIT, and Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland.
A world-renowned expert in thermal sciences, Bergles published more than 400 papers, 26 books and presented more than 400 invited lectures. He received numerous professional awards for his work on heat transfer, was named a fellow of seven technical societies, and received honorary doctorates from the University of Porto, Portugal, Rand Afrikaans University in South Africa, and the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1992, and as a foreign member of the English Royal Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2000.
In addition to his long and distinguished career as an engineering educator, Bergles was also a dedicated and active ASME volunteer. Bergles, the ASME president in 1990-1991, served as director of the ASME Foundation from 1994-1999, as chair of a number of Society committees including the Committee of Past Presidents and several ASME Heat Transfer Division committees, and as vice chair of the Committee on Honors and the Committee of Past Presidents. During his 55 years with ASME, Bergles was a member of many other committees, including the Committee on Staff, the Committee on Organization and Rules, and the Max Jakob Award Committee. Bergles also served the Society as a member of the Board of Governors, chair of the Heat Transfer Division, vice president for Professional Development, and editor of the Journal of Heat Transfer.
Bergles was the recipient of the Society's highest award, the ASME Medal, in 2000, as well as the Dedicated Service Award in 1984 and the Heat Transfer Memorial Award in 1979. He became an ASME Fellow in 1979 and an ASME Honorary Member in 1996.
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