Throughout his career, John Tinsley Oden has made seminal contributions in many areas of computational mechanics and scientific computation. Accordingly, in honor of his 70th birthday, this special issue of Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering features the latest developments in several areas of computational mechanics and scientific computation to which he has contributed. From applications in nanotechnology and bioengineering, to recent advances in numerical methods and high-performance computing, it is our wish that this issue reflects, in the truest sense, ''Interdisciplinary Computation", and highlights the latest trends in computational mechanics, addressing advances in multiscale and multiphysical methods, as well as other topics in related cutting edge research.
It is impossible to overstate the scientific accomplishments of John Tinsley Oden. Also, on the human side, it is equally impossible to overstate his genuine human warmth and his discipline of steel, which has its origins in his early life and upbringing. John Tinsley Oden was born on Christmas Day in Alexandria, LA, in 1936 to Sara and John Oden. Tinsley and his younger brother, Henry, were blessed with parents who instilled in them a sense of honor, and appreciation of education and extraordinary work ethic. Tinsley's mother spent her younger years as an English teacher while his father and grandfather each founded their own road construction materials companies. Their example led Tinsley to graduate from Bolton High School in Alexandria with honors in 1955 and to complete a 5-year program in Civil Engineering at Louisiana State University in only 3 years, graduating first in his class. This enabled him to enter the graduate program at Oklahoma State University in 1959 and to complete his Masters and Ph.D. programs in only 3 years with a perfect 4.0, finishing at the age of only 25. After a year of teaching at Oklahoma State University, Tinsley decided to gain industrial experience as a Senior Research Engineer at the General Dynamics Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas. During his tenure at General Dynamics he met his future wife, Barbara Smith. Shortly after his departure to again enter academia, at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, he and Barbara were married in 1965. Their children, Walker and Lee were born in 1970 and 1972 during the Huntsville years. The high intensity of scientific activity in Huntsville, the center of the US space program, provided a fertile field for Tinsley's professional work for the next several years. In 1973, Tinsley moved to Austin and became the founding Director of the Texas Institute for Computational Mechanics (TICOM) in 1974. By 1994, TICOM had evolved into the Texas Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (TICAM) which, in turn became the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) in 2003. ICES has become a world-renown institution that supports broad interdisciplinary research and academic programs in computational engineering and sciences, involving four colleges and 17 academic departments within UT Austin. His perseverance and determination has guided the path to ICES.
During these years of building this world-class institute, Tinsley's research has never waivered, and in fact it has relentlessly diversified.