Dym Receives Inaugural ASME Honor

Harvey Mudd College Professor of Engineering Emeritus Clive L. Dym has received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Inaugural Design Theory and Methodology Award. Dym was recognized for his “sustained and meritorious contributions to research, education, service, training of researchers and practitioners, and overall leadership in advancing the field of Design Theory and Methodology.”

The award was presented by Julie Linsey, chair of the Design Theory and Methodology Technical Committee, at the ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences on Aug. 4, 2015, in Boston. Though not on hand to accept the award, Dym commented in a prepared statement: “Nowadays the scope of design thinking is far broader and increasingly multidimensional. Design has emerged as a rapidly maturing discipline, central to engineering, with its own vocabulary, theory, methodology and ethos.”

Recently, Dym was recognized for his many contributions to engineering design education with the 2015 Benjamin Garver Lamme Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. Dym was responsible for the creation of the Harvey Mudd engineering program’s formal design instruction and was instrumental in creating the Mudd Design Workshops, which bring together a wide range of institutions to discuss engineering education and their shared experiences. Before retiring from the College in 2012, Dym was the Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design (1991–2012) and director of the Center for Design Education at Harvey Mudd (1995–2012).

“I had the very good fortune to be, in the words of [Former U.S. Secretary of State] Dean Acheson, ‘present at the creation’ and part of the many conversations that produced this new discipline,” Dym wrote in his remarks. “And I had the very good fortune to be involved with several emerging design communities and work together with a lot of talented colleagues and friends. It is a recognition that is enormously flattering and one I will never forget.”

ASME is a professional association that promotes the art, science and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe via continuing education, training and professional development, codes and standards, research, conferences and publications, government relations and other forms of outreach.