 Liviu Librescu (August 18, 1930 – April 16, 2007)
was a Romanian born and educated Israeli-American scientist and academic whose
major research fields were aero-elasticity and aerodynamics. His last academic
position was Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech.
The 76-year-old Holocaust survivor was shot and killed in the Virginia Tech
massacre while holding off the gunman at the entrance to his classroom so his
students could escape through the windows.
Life and Career
Liviu Librescu was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in the city of Ploieşti,
Romania. After Romania allied with Nazi Germany in World War II, his father,
Isidore Librescu, was deported to a labor camp in Transnistria (World War II
region), and later his family, along with thousands of other Jews, were deported
to a ghetto in the Romanian city of Focsani. Liviu as a boy was interned in a
labor camp in Transnistria. Some sources report that he was taken to a Soviet
labor camp. Speaking to Israeli Channel 10 TV the day after his death, his wife
Marlena, who is also a Holocaust survivor, said, "We were in Romania during the
Second World War, and we were Jews there among the Germans, and among the
anti-Semitic Romanians." Speaking to BBC after his death, his son Joe said Liviu
did not wish to talk much about that period of his life. Dorothea Weisbuch, a
cousin of Librescu living in Romania, said in an interview to Romanian newspaper
Cotidianul: "He was an extraordinarily gifted person and very altruist. When he
was little, he was very curious and knew everything, so that I thought he would
become very conceited, but it did not happen so; he was of a rare modesty."
Liviu Librescu survived the Holocaust, and was repatriated to Communist Romania
and became an accomplished scientist. He studied aerospace engineering at the
Polytechnic University of Bucharest, graduating in 1952 and continuing with a
master degree at the same university. He was awarded a Ph.D. in fluid mechanics
in 1969 at the Academia de stiinte din Romania. From 1953 to 1975, he worked as
a researcher at the Bucharest Institute of Applied Mechanics, and later at the
Institute of Fluid Mechanics and the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace
Constructions of the Academy of Science of Romania.
His career stalled in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the
Communist Party of Romania and was forced out of academia there for his
sympathies towards Israel. When Librescu requested permission to emigrate to
Israel, he was fired from his job. In 1976, a smuggled research manuscript that
he had published in the Netherlands drew him international attention in the
growing field of material dynamics.
After years of government refusal, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
personally intervened to get the Librescu family an emigration permit by
directly asking Romanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu to let them go. They moved
to Israel in 1978.
From 1979 to 1986, Librescu was Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical
Engineering at Tel-Aviv University and taught at the Technion in Haifa. In 1985,
he left on sabbatical for the United States, where he served as Professor at
Virginia Tech in its Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics from
September 1, 1985 until his death. He served as a member on the editorial board
of seven scientific journals and was invited as a guest editor of special issues
of five other journals. Most recently, he was co-chair of the International
Organizing Committee of the 7-th International Congress on Thermal Stress,
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, June 4, 2007 to 7, and was scheduled to give
the invited keynote lecture there. According to his wife, no other [Virginia
Tech] professor has ever published more articles than Librescu.
Fields of Research
- Librescu's major fields of study included:
- Foundation and applications of the modern theory of shells incorporating
non-classical effects and composed of advanced composite materials.
- Foundation of the theory and applications of sandwich type structures.
- Aero-elastic stability of flight vehicle structures.
- Nonlinear aero-elasticity of structures in supersonic and hypersonic flow
fields.
- Aero-elastic and structural tailoring.
- Dynamic response and instability of elastic and visco-elastic laminated
composite structures subjected to deterministic and random loading systems.
- Mechanical and thermal post buckling of flat and curved shear-deformable
elastic panels.
- Static, dynamic and aero-elastic feedback control of adaptive structures.
- Unsteady aerodynamics and magneto-aerodynamics of supersonic flows with
applications.
- Optimization problems of aero-elastic structural systems.
- Theory of composite thin-walled beams and its application in aeronautical
and mechanical constructions.
Response and behavior of structures to underwater and in-air explosions.
- Multifunctional and functionally graded material structures.
Death and Legacy
At age 76, Librescu was among the thirty-two people who were murdered in the
Virginia Tech massacre. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho entered Norris Hall
Engineering Building and opened fire on classrooms. Librescu, who taught a solid
mechanics class in Room 204 in the Norris Hall during April 2007, held the door
of his classroom shut while Cho was attempting to enter it. Although he was shot
through the door, Librescu prevented the gunman from entering the classroom
until most of his students had escaped through the windows. He was struck by
five bullets, with a shot to the head ending his life. Of the 23 registered
students, one, Minal Panchal, died.
A number of Librescu's students have called him a hero because of his actions.
One student, Asael Arad, said that all the professor's students "lived because
of him." Caroline Merrey, a senior, said she and about 20 other students
scrambled through the windows as Librescu shouted for them to hurry. Merrey,
previously seated in the rear of the room while next to the windows, stated that
she was the third student to leave Norris 204. Merrey said that "I don’t think I
would be here if it wasn't for [Librescu]." Librescu's son, Joe, said he had
received e-mails from several students who said he had saved their lives and
regarded him as a hero while many newspapers also reported him as the hero of
the massacre.
Following the murder of Librescu, his son Arieh contacted the Chabad movement to
secure that his father's body would be treated according to Jewish law and that
the body was released immediately for Jewish burial in Israel. With the
assistance of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the body was released on April 17 and
brought to New York via police escort. On April 18, Librescu received a funeral
service at a Jewish Orthodox funeral home in Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York
City, New York and on April 20, he was interred in Israel. In his native
Romania, his picture was placed on a table at the Polytechnic University of
Bucharest, and a candle was lit. People laid flowers nearby.
Marlena Librescu stated that her husband's favorite Jewish commandment was that
Jews should light Shabbat candles. On Friday eve April 20, 2007, the Chabad
movement spearheaded a campaign to light Shabbat candles. Following the funeral,
the Chabad on Campus Foundation announced their intention to establish a chapter
in Librescu's name at Virginia Tech.
The murder took place on the day of Israel's commemoration of Yom HaShoah
(Holocaust Remembrance Day). On April 18, 2007 U.S. President George Bush
honored Librescu at a memorial service held at the US Holocaust Museum to a
crowd that included many Holocaust survivors:
That day we saw horror, but we also saw quiet acts of courage. We saw
this courage in a teacher named Liviu Librescu. With the gunman set to enter
his class, this brave professor blocked the door with his body while his
students fled to safety. On the Day of Remembrance, this Holocaust survivor
gave his own life so that others may live. And this morning we honor his
memory and we take strength from his example.
Honors and Awards
Librescu received many academic honors during his work in the Engineering
Science and Mechanics Department at Virginia Tech, serving as chair or invited
as a keynote speaker of several International Congresses on Thermal Stresses and
receiving several honorary degrees. He was elected member of the Academy of
Sciences of the Shipbuilding of Ukraine (2000) and Foreign Fellow of the Academy
of Engineering of Armenia (1999). He was a recipient of Doctor Honoris Causa of
the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest (2000), of the 1999 Dean's Award for
Excellence in Research, College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, and a laureate
of the Traian Vuia Prize of the Romanian Academy (1972). He was a member of the
Board of Experts of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Scientific
Research. He was awarded the Engineering Science and Mechanics Frank J. Maher
Award for Excellence in Engineering Education (2005) and an ASME diploma (2005)
expressing "deep appreciation for the valuable services in advancing the
engineering profession".
Posthumously, Professor Librescu was commended by Traian Băsescu, the President
of Romania, with the Star of Romania Order with the rank of Grand Cross, "as a
sign of high appreciation and gratitude for the entire scientific and academic
activity, as well as for the heroism shown in the course of the tragic events
which took place on April 16th, 2007, [...] through which he saved the lives of
his students, sacrificing his own life."
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