Daniel N. Beshers  

Daniel Beshers (1928-2024

Professor Emeritus Metallurgy, H. Krumb School of Mines; Special Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests

Mechanical properties, especially losses of energy in dynamic processes Magnetic hysteresis losses and magnetomechanical damping Interstitial impurities

Professor Emeritus Daniel N. Beshers, age 95, died peacefully in his sleep on January 4, 2024.

He was born August 13, 1928 in Chicago IL to Hugh Monahan Beshers and Caroline (Newson) Beshers.  His early childhood was spent mostly on Aruba, where Hugh, a civil engineer, helped to build and run an oil refinery.  Daniel had two younger brothers, James and Eric, both deceased.  When he was 12 the family settled in Washington, DC, where he attended junior high and Woodrow Wilson high school.

Daniel attended Swarthmore College (BA in Mathematics, 1949) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned an MS (1951) and Ph.D. (1955) in Physics.  He spent one year at the Office of Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC, and then moved to Columbia University in New York as an Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics in the Henry Krumb School of Mines, specializing in Metallurgy.  He spent the rest of his career at Columbia, being promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1965 and Full Professor in 1970.

He advised a number of graduate students and was known for his demanding yet rewarding classes. He retired as a member of the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In 2008 he was awarded the Zener Medal by the International Conference on Internal Friction and Mechanical Spectroscopy (ICIFMS) for “remarkable scientific achievements in the field of anelasticity, mechanical spectroscopy and the study of condensed matter with acoustic methods”.  His final co-authored paper was published when he was 89 years old.

Education

University of Illinois, Ph.D. (Physics) 1956

University of Illinois, M.S. (Physics) 1951

Swarthmore College, B.A. (Mathematics) 1949

Selected Publications

"Eddy Current Damping Revisited", Materials Science and Engineering A, vol 521-522, pp 190-193 (2009)

D. N. Beshers, G. B. Vunni, "Topological Hysteresis as a Model for Rayleigh Damping", Materials Science and Engineering A442,191-194 (2006) (with G. B. Vunni)

D. N. Beshers, R. J. Seymour, "Effects of proximity on mis-matched composites", Materials Science and Engineering A409, 211-216 (2005)

D. N. Beshers, G. B. Vunni, V. F. Coronel, "Anharmonic aspects of magnetomechanical damping", Materials Science and Engineering, A370, 352-355 (2004)

D. N. Beshers, "Microeddy Current Damping", Journal of Alloys and Compounds 310, 165-168 (2000)

D. N. Beshers, "Nickel-titanium Alloys: Stress-related temperature transitional range", American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics 118, 685-692 (2000) (with M. Santoro)

D. N. Beshers, "Magnetomechanical damping at low temperature," J. Phys. IV, Colloq. (France), 6 no. 8. 523 (1996)

D. N. Beshers, "Internal stress: measures by mobility of Bloch walls and dislocations," Micromechanics of Advanced Materials, 17 (1995)

K. R. Thumma and D. N. Beshers, "Damping and acoustic harmonics in cracked laminated composites," Metall. Mater. Trans. A, 26A, 2825 (1995)

V. F. Coronel, D. N. Beshers, S. Catto, and F. S. Ryan, "Flux oscillations generated by vibration of iron at 22 kHz," J. Phys. Chem. Solids, 55 No. 12, 1521 (1994)

J. D. Mis, S. Madder, and D. N. Beshers, "Effects of a stress field on boron ion implantation damage in silicon," J. Appl. Phys., 74, 2294 (1993)