John Melvin (engineer)

John William Melvin (May 15, 1938 – July 17, 2014) was a research engineer in the field of the biomechanics[1] of automobile crashes and a safety consultant in the field of automotive racing safety.[2][3]

Early life and education

Melvin was born in Washington D.C. to Eleanor (Joness) Melvin and Eugene H. Melvin. He received his B.S. (1960), M.S. (1962) and Ph.D. (1964) degrees in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois.

Career

Melvin worked as a research scientist at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) from 1968 to 1985. He was an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department at the University of Michigan from 1978 to 1986.

From 1985 to 1998 Melvin was a Senior Staff Research Engineer at the General Motors Research Laboratories.[4][5] He retired from General Motors in 1998 and became an independent consultant for the automotive industry and for organizations such as the Indy Racing League, the FIA / Formula 1, and NASA.[6] In 2001, he became a safety consultant for NASCAR, serving as the Technical Consultant to NASCAR for Race Car Safety.[7][8]

John Melvin held four patents in the field of automotive safety:

gollark: This seems like makefiles but Lua-y.
gollark: What's an alfons?
gollark: Hmm, my compile process has become an unholy abomination consisting of a python script, shellscript, a Node.js program for Lua bundling, and Perl for some reason.
gollark: Deploying orbital laser strike.
gollark: > I just realized that I can make paywalls when I create an account system lmaono.

References
  1. " James Hinchcliffe frustrated in hometown races again this year". The Globe and Mail, Jeff Pappone, July 21, 2014
  2. "Drivers don't just listen to John Melvin, they put their lives in his hands". ESPN January 16, 2008, Terry Blount
  3. "NASCAR copes with 4 deaths in 9 months". CBC News February 19, 2001
  4. "Randy LaJoie just wants to save lives". ESPN, Ryan McGee, July 18, 2013
  5. "NASCAR safety expert Dr. John Melvin dies". Auto Week, July 18, 2014
  6. "Racing world loses a true pioneer in Dr. John Melvin". News Journal, July 19, 2014
  7. "Blow up 2015 NASCAR schedule? No one can light match". Charlotte Observer. By Jim Utter.
  8. "NASCAR safety pioneer Dr. John Melvin passes away". Fox Sports, By Jay Pennell, July 18, 2014.
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