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Obituary in Engineering Computations
International Journal for Computer-Aided Engineering & Software
Professor Ernest Hinton
Professor Ernest Hinton died on Thursday 18th November. He was with the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Wales Swansea for over 30 years.
Ernie was born in Liverpool in the Spring of 1946; a fact that earned him the reputation of being a VE (Victory in Europe) baby. He grew up in Liverpool and apparently spent quite some time at the dog racing tracks earning some money as a helper. Ernie left Liverpool at the same time as The Beatles and as he often pointed out: “Look what became of them and look what became of me!”
From Liverpool he moved to Swansea where he went through a ‘normal’, highly successful academic career and in 1989 he was awarded a personal chair in recognition of his world class research. In Swansea he met Margaret, the “best wife in the world” as he often described her. They married and had two sons, William and Edward.
From his Liverpool days he inherited his love for football. He was a keen supporter of Everton FC and naturally he could not resist telling the story about how many football clubs there were in Liverpool: Tranmere, Everton and Everton Reserves! He liked to quote Everton FC’s motto ‘Nil Satis – Nisi Optimum’ - nothing is satisfactory unless it is the best – to summarize the objectives of his research into structural topology and shape optimisation over the last ten years, but it applied equally to the spirit in which he did all his work.
Ernie was a very important part of the pioneering team at Swansea that made it the home of Computational Mechanics in Europe and the World. His personal contribution to this success at Swansea was considerable. His early textbooks, co-authored with Roger Owen, are essential reading material for students around the world and became benchmarks for later treatises on Finite Elements. His legacy will always be remembered by future generations of researchers, and by the many present students who have benefited from his research work.
The MSc and PhD students who were supervised by Ernie benefited from his seemingly infinite motivation and inspiration. In Germany a PhD supervisor is called ‘Doktorvater’ which translates into ‘PhD father’. This description fits Ernie extremely well, since he not only supervised his students but additionally was a mentor for them, guiding them through that important part of their lives. He also spent a tremendous amount of energy on lecturing at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level and students appreciated his efforts to explain difficult subjects in understandable form. His door was always open, and anybody who wanted help with a difficult subject, or with other problems was always welcome. Despite his personal fight with illness he had lots of time and encouragement for the people around him.
Whenever one sat down with Ernie, he started interesting conversations. His mind seemed to be restless in gathering and digesting information, and suddenly a new idea evolved. Ernie had a natural thirst for knowledge and this translated into his work. Whenever he went on one of his many journeys to all parts of the world, he came back with new books and new ideas for research. He simply loved researching new topics and opening up new fields.
The news of Ernie’s death has had a major impact on his many colleagues in Swansea and internationally. Ernie was an academic, a researcher, and a highly respected and well loved individual, who can best be described as ‘a scholar and a gentleman having quality and integrity’.
His colleagues will remember his many contributions but will, in addition, recall a courageous man with a Liverpudlian sense of humour and keen intellect. Ernie liked to play with words and to tell humorous stories, such as: “It is night and a policeman sees a drunk on the ground in the light of a street lamp, seemingly looking for something. When asked what he was doing the man answered that he was looking for his keys. Whereupon the policeman asked him where he had lost his keys. The man replied that he had not actually lost them here, but somewhere over there in the dark; however, it is was a lot easier to look for them in the light of the street lamp.” Ernie re-phrased the lesson from this story in one sentence: ‘If you want to go there, I would not start from here.’
He will be greatly missed. A great man.
Hans
(Johann Sienz) Swansea, December 21, 1999
Short CV of Prof. Ernest Hinton
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:
(a) B.Sc. Honours (Wales) 1967,
(b) M.Sc. (Wales) 1968,
(c) Ph.D. (Wales) 1971 Design of RC slabs, and
(d) D.Sc. (Wales) 1988
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:
(a) C. Eng.,
(b) M.I.Struct.E. and
(c) M.B.C.S.
APPOINTMENTS:
(a) 1971 Research Assistant (University of Wales Swansea),
(b) 1974 Lecturer,
(c) 1982 Senior Lecturer,
(d) 1986 Reader, and
(e) 1989 Professor.
ACTIVITIES:
(a) Co-author of 9 textbooks,
(b) Co-author of 200 scientific publications,
(c) Joint Editor of 7 scientific monographs on Computational Mechanics,
(d) Joint Editor of ‘Engineering Computations’, An International Journal for Computer-Aided Engineering, and ‘Design Optimization’, Product and Process Improvement,
(e) Co-organiser of 10 International Conferences on Computational Mechanics in Engineering,
(f) Chairman of Research Working Group of NAFEMS (National Agency for Finite Methods and Standards),
(g) Member of Steering Group and other NAFEMS Working Group on Nonlinear Problems,
(h) Leader of ADOPT Research Group at Swansea,
(i) Co-Leader of the PolySim Research Group at Swansea, and
(j) Member of EPSRC College on Design and Integrated Production.
ADMINISTRATION (UWS)
(a) Chairman Postgraduate Affairs Committee,
(b) Chairman M.Sc. Subject Panel,
(c) Member Strategic Planning Committee,
(d) Member Maths. and Computing Subject Panel,
(e) Library Liaison and
(f) Student Demonstrators
TEACHING DUTIES (UWS):
(a) Finite Elements Undergraduate,
(b) Civil Engineering Materials Undergraduate,
(c) Finite Elements M.Sc. and
(d) Optimization M.Sc
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