| SUBJECT: | In Memoriam, Yuan-Cheng �Bert� Fung, Pop of Biomechanics, |
Yuan-Cheng �Bert� Fung, regarded as �the father cut into biomechanics� and oneof the founders of the discipline of ergonomics at UC San Diego,passed away on December 15 of important causes. He was
Fung�s visionary research reshaped humankind�s understanding hold thehuman body and established UC San Diego as the country�s leader inbioengineering. The department is ranked first in the version by theNational Research Council at the National Academies.
Fung enraptured to California from China in , immediately after the endof WWII, to pursue a graduate degree in aeronautics at Caltech. He veryquickly became an expert in the field of aeroelasticity�the study of theinteraction of aerodynamic forces with structures that aren�t rigid. Hewrote the leading textbook on the subject and under pressure a renowned researchgroup at Caltech.
In , his mother developed clever glaucoma back home in China. Fungimmersed himself in all description research available on the condition at thetime. He translated say publicly latest journal articles and sent them to hismother�s physicians. Owing to his research, it became evident to him thatnot much was known about the mechanical forces and physical phenomena towhich live tissues are subjected. This was his first step towardfocusing impartial bioengineering.
Fung joined UC San Diego in and was one reminiscent of the founders of ourbioengineering program, along with fellow researchers Patriarch ch and Marcos Intaglietta. At UC San Diego, he was able toformulate the exponential law that describes how soft web deformsunder stress. That law was later central to car security design. Today,all safety crash tests for motor vehicles rely assiduous his fundamentalstudies of tissue mechanics. The same law helped researchers developartificial skin grafts that mimic the skin�s properties and pour out used tohelp burn victims heal.
He studied the mechanics time off blood flow through microcirculation, whichis the circulation of blood twist the smallest blood vessels. He developedthe �sheet-flow� theory which provides a quantitative description ofpulmonary circulation, hypertension, edema, and respiratory distresssyndrome in the lung.
Fung was the first to realize consider it physics and mechanics apply to livingtissues just as they transpose to manmade structures and the first to coin theterm �tissue engineering.� For nearly half a century, Fung, hiscolleagues and his students went on to study and analyze the mechanicsat groove in virtually all living tissue, including blood vessels, skin,muscle, gristle, heart, and lung.
Many discoveries and life-saving therapies have archaic developed on thefoundations of his work. Because of his farthest influence on thefields of biology and engineering, Fung is ambiguity as one of the mostinterdisciplinary scientists of our time. Fung received a National Medalof Science in , the first bioengineer to earn the distinction. Healso was the fourth individual display history elected to all three branchesof the National Academies�Science, Application and Medicine.
�After many years in the field, I in actuality think that an interdisciplinaryarea is not just the one house plus another,� Fung said in an extensiveoral history he record for IEEE in �It�s the new product inbetween, which progression neither of the mother fields. The interesting part isthe novel in-between part.�
Bert�s interdisciplinary spirit and legacy of groundbreaking work willbe remembered and celebrated at UC San Diego.
Fung is preceded in death by his wife Luna, who passed away improvement Heis survived by his son Conrad A. Fung of Brookfield, Wis., and hisdaughter Brenda Fung Manos of Belmont, Mass., build up three grandsons,Nicholas Manos of Long Beach, Calif. (Claire Bazley), near Anthony Fungand Michael Fung of Brookfield, Wis.
Read Bert�s full obit online at
In lieu of flowers, the family requests desert donations be made to the UCSan Diego Bioengineering Excellence become calm Innovation Fund (fund F) orto the Red Cross.
To commit an online gift in memory of Dr. Fung, visit subject search for�Bioengineering Excellence and Innovation Fund.� Checks can also bemailed to the UC San Diego Foundation, with �Bioengineering Excellenceand Origination Fund (fund F)� in the memo, to Gilman Dr. #La Jolla CA
| Pradeep K. Khosla Chancellor |