HomeDate: 2026-07-30
Academician Chiang C. Mei passed away in the United States on July 16, 2026, at the age of 91.
Academician Mei was an internationally renowned civil and environmental engineer whose research spanned theoretical hydrodynamics, ocean and coastal wave phenomena, fluid–structure interaction, poroelasticity, seabed mechanics, land subsidence, debris flows, and soil remediation. His pioneering theoretical models of wave phenomena laid important foundations for modern coastal engineering and have been widely applied to the design and analysis of offshore structures in complex marine environments.
Dr. Mei received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1963. Beginning in 1965, he served on the faculties of the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught for 45 years. He was appointed Ford Professor of Engineering, and in recognition of his outstanding academic contributions, MIT established the C. C. Mei Distinguished Speaker Series, which brings together distinguished scholars from diverse disciplines to carry forward his spirit of interdisciplinary research.
Dr. Mei was elected a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. His honors included the Theodore von Kármán Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was elected an Academician of Academia Sinica in 1992.
