Richard Mark French, Ph.D.

Professor

rmfrench@purdue.edu

765-494-7521

765-494-6219

https://www.youtube.com/purduemet

Knoy 121

121 Knoy Hall, 401 N. Grant St.
401 N. Grant Street

West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2021

Richard M. 'Mark' French took an unusual path to becoming a professor. He was originally trained as an aerospace engineer and spent 10 years as a civilian aerospace engineer for the US Air Force in what was then the Flight Dynamics Lab at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton OH. Tiring of secure employment, he moved to the automotive industry in 1995. He was a test lab manager for Lear Corp. until 1999. He decided he liked technical work more than management and joined an advanced noise and vibration group at Bosch. In 2004, he came to Purdue as an assistant professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering Technology in what was then the College of Technology.

Prof. French's areas of specialty at Purdue are industrial support, experimental mechanics and stringed instrument design. He has written three books, about a hundred technical articles and has been awarded three patents.

Education:

B.S. Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Va Tech, 1985

M.S. Aerospace Engineering, University of Dayton, 1988

Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering, University of Dayton, 1993

2018 Murphy Award - University Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching

2018 College Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching

2018 Purdue Book of Great Teachers

2014 College Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching

2008 College Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching

2010 Brewer Award - Society for Experimental Mechanics Award for Outstanding Experiemental Stress Analyst

Books:

Fundamentals of Optimization (Springer 2018)
Technology of the Guitar (Springer 2012)
Engineering the Guitar (Springer, 2008)

Purdue Polytechnic Institute

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Richard French

Richard Mark French, Ph.D.

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