Anthony Armenàkas, a professor emeritus of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and of the National Technical University of Athens whose research advanced structural and aerospace engineering, has died. He was 94.
He acted as a consultant to many private companies and governmental agencies in the United States and Europe. He published many technical papers in engineering journals, and held several patents on guided wave ultrasonic delay lines.
Armenàkas, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, an ASCE Life Member, came to the U.S. to continue an education begun in Greece. After receiving civil engineering and mechanics degrees from three of the country’s most prestigious institutes, he taught for more than 40 years at four more before joining Polytech NYU (1967-1998) as a professor of aerospace engineering. Concurrently, he served as a professor and director of the Institute of Structural Analysis of the National Technical University of Athens (1977-1985), and from 1972 to 1974 he was a Fulbright Lecturer in Greece.
Armenàkas was the author of five published books: “Free Vibrations of Circular Cylindrical Shells” (Pergamon Press), “Classical Structural Analysis – A Modern Approach” and “Modern Structural Analysis – The Matrix Method Approach” (both by McGraw-Hill), “Tensor Analysis for Engineers” (National Technical University of Athens) and “Advanced Mechanics of Materials and Applied Elasticity” (Taylor and Francis).
In addition to his fellowship with ASCE, he was active on behalf of Greek railroads and served on the Hellenic National Scholarship Foundation. He was also vice chairman of the board of directors of the Hellenic National Earthquake protection and design agency, and for over 20 years was chairman of the board for the Poulos Philanthropic Foundation. Armenàkas received an honorary Ph.D. from the Democretean University of Greece.
