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Retired, formerly with Lockheed Advanced Development Center
Palo Alto, California
From an article dated April 23, 2011 in The Oregonian (OREGONLIVE) by David Stabler:
How many résumés combine secret codes, submarines, fluid dynamics and Chopin?
John A. DeRuntz, 73, is a retired mathematician and scientist, known internationally in the field of shock waves. His computer code for analyzing underwater shock waves is so valuable the Navy uses it to design the Seawolf class of submarines.
And, by the way, he's also a pianist, one of three Oregonians who recently learned they've been invited to compete at the Van Cliburn Foundation's sixth International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, an auditioned field of serious, but not professional, pianists held every four years in Fort Worth, Texas. The other two Oregon pianists are Darlene Cusick, a retired piano teacher from Portland, and Judy Darst, a retired piano teacher from Bend. They will compete May 23-29 [2011].
"I'm kind of not worthy," says DeRuntz, whose six-page résumé refers to missiles and Mozart. "The news blew me away." He's one of three Oregon pianists competing against 74 pianists from around the world in Fort Worth, Texas in late May.
For 26 years, the Tigard [Oregon] resident worked at Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., where he researched wave dynamics, underwater shock waves and the interaction of waves and ships. Earlier in his career, he worked on thermal insulation for the space shuttle. He may be the only pianist at the competition to have had a secret security clearance, now lapsed.
Shock and vibration really get him going, as does music. He's even given a music lecture at the annual Shock and Vibration Symposium called "Music, the Art of Good Vibrations."
Born in Chicago, DeRuntz has played piano all his life. He says he's mostly self-taught. Unlike most of the other 76 contestants, he will play his own music at the Cliburn competition. He's written well over 100 pieces, he says, and can be seen on several YouTube videos playing his gentle, melancholy compositions. He plays almost every day and has recorded two albums of his music, in a lyrical style suggestive of Chopin.
"I'm a hopeless romantic," he acknowledges.
Education:
1959 B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology
1962 M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology
1965 Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology
2007 Recipient of SAVIAC’s Melvin L. Baron Award:
SAVIAC’s (Shock And Vibration Information Analysis Center) most prestigious honor, the Melvin L. Baron Award, was presented to Dr. John A. DeRuntz, Jr., for his pioneering work in numerical simulation methods and tools that analyze the response of submarines and surface ships to underwater explosions. As developer of the Underwater Shock Analysis (USA) and Cavitating Fluid Analyzer (CFA) codes, he is as one of the community’s outstanding researchers. The award was named for one of Weidlinger Associates’s founding principals, Dr. Melvin L. Baron, in recognition of his technical contributions and leadership in computational structural dynamics and shock- and vibration-related specialties. The award is given for unique contributions to the field as well as for lifetime achievement. The award was presented to Dr. DeRuntz by Professor Thomas L. Geers, the 2001 award recipient.
Selected Publications:
Non-Technical Book:
John DeRuntz, Tantum Ergo Makes Your Hair Grow (and other things I learned after class)
Technical Papers:
Deruntz JA, Hodge PG. Crushing of a tube between rigid plates. J Appl Mech 1963; 30: pp 391–398.
For more see the link, Dr. John A. DeRuntz, Jr.
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