The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) announced on January 28 that Academician Tzu-Yow Yang (Henry Yang) will receive the 2008 AIAA Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Award during the AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, on April 7 to 10, 2008. The Award, consisting of a medal, citation certificate, and rosette pin, will be presented to Yang on April 9, 2008.

Academician Yang is now Professor and Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is being honored for sustained contributions to outstanding research, education and service in aerospace structures, structural dynamics and materials, and for pioneering work in shell finite elements, transonic flutter, structural dynamics and computational materials processing.

The AIAA was created in 1963 when the two great aerospace societies of the day, the American Rocket Society and the Institute of Aerospace Science, merged. With more than 35,000 members in 65 regional sections and 79 countries, AIAA is the world's largest professional society devoted to the progress of engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense.

Academician Yang has authored or co-authored around 170 articles for scientific journals (including 43 articles since becoming chancellor), served as P.I. or co-P.I. for 32 sponsored research grants (including 9 NSF grants since becoming chancellor), guided 52 Ph.D. theses (including 12 since becoming chancellor), and received 13 outstanding undergraduate teaching awards (including an honorary distinguished teaching award from UCSB's Academic Senate). His book Finite Element Structural Analysis, published by Prentice-Hall, has been adopted by many universities and has also been published in Japanese and Chinese.

Academician Yang is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of AIAA and ASEE and Academia Sinica. He received the Benjamin Garver Lamme Gold Medal, the American Society of Engineering Education in 1998. He has also been bestowed honorary doctoral degrees by four universities.