In Memoriam of Professor Yavuz Basar
On August 30, 2002, our highly-esteemed colleauge, friend and mentor, Prof. Yavuz Basar,
died suddenly and unexpectedly. He leaves behind his wife Emine and his two sons Emre and
Eray.
Due to Yavuz Basar’s sudden death, Ruhr University Bochum and the whole international
scientific research community in the area of computational mechanics lose one of their
outstanding scientists and researchers.
He greatly enjoyed science and was very productive up until the end. Many new plans were
jointly developed only recently at our institute. His four published books and more than 130
publications earned Yavuz Basar a highly-esteemed reputation world-wide in the field of
computational mechanics and, in particular, in the field of numerical analysis of shell
structures.
Yavuz Basar was born on March 15, 1935 in Istanbul. After graduation from the Galatasary
High School in Istanbul he studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
There, he obtained his diploma in civil engineering in 1960. Four years later, he achieved his
doctoral degree at Hannover University with a Ph.D. thesis on the numerical analysis of shell
structures. Together with his highly-valued teacher, Wolfgang Zerna, he changed to Ruhr
University Bochum in 1969. There, he obtained his professor title in 1973. Five years later, in
1978, he held a professorship at Technical University Istanbul. Yavuz Basar taught at
universities in Germany, France, Italy and Turkey. However, with the exception of a short
period as professor and director of the Institute for Structural Mechanics at Yildiz University
Istanbul, he always remained loyal towards Ruhr University Bochum, where he was engaged
in scientific research and taught as a professor since 1983. He was an outstanding teacher
who put forth great effort for his students. Especially for his diploma and doctoral students he
most often was more a father-like mentor, far beyond just being a teacher.
Scientific excellence and high ethical standards were deeply integrated in Yavuz Basar’s
personality. His opinions and his advice were always positive, of great tolerance and integrity.
He was always an honest and trustworthy partner. Some of us even had the opportunity to get
to know Yavuz Basar as an admirer of the fine arts who was fond of music, paintings, literature
– and who, from time to time, even produced essays and lyrics himself.
The Institute for Structural Mechanics deeply mourns over a very special colleague and
teacher. We will always remember him with great respect.
Our cordial sympathy rests with his familiy.
The staff members of the Institute for Structural Mechanics