Biographical Note

Dr. Agnieszka (Agnes) Muszynska is a native of Warsaw, Poland. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Warsaw (M.S. in March 1960). Two years of her undergraduate studies were completed in Moscow, USSR, at Bauman Technical University. Dr. Muszynska has received her Ph.D. in Technical Sciences (October 1966) and the second level Ph.D. (habilitation, May 1977), both from the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1998, she was awarded the highest professional degree, Professor of Technical Sciences by the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski. Dr. Muszynska is fluent in Polish, English, Russian, and French.

In February 2000, Dr. Muszynska started her own business: she created a consulting firm "A.M. Consulting". Between October 2000 and April 2001, she worked on a contract at the Institute of Robotics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. Her consulting work there concerned the “Rotor/Retainer Bearing Dynamics”. In August 2001, Dr. Muszynska presented a Keynote Address on “Rotor/Fluid Interaction” problems to the participants of the International Conference ISCORMA-1 (Lake Tahoe, 20-24 August 2001). From September till the end of the year 2001, Dr. Muszynska worked as a Visiting Professor and Consultant at the Laboratory of Applied Mechanics of the University of Franche Comte in Besancon, France. She was lecturing Mechanics and Rotor Dynamics.

During the years 1981 – 1999 Dr. Muszynska worked as a Senior Research Scientist and Research Manager at Bently Nevada Corporation (BNC) and its subsidiary, Bently Rotor Dynamics Research Corporation (BRDRC). During these 18 years, Dr. Muszynska conducted theoretical and experimental research on Rotating Machine Dynamics, participated as a lecturer in BNC technical training programs, and was a Member of BRDRC Board of Directors. In 1997, she served also as a Member of the BNC Board of Directors.

Bently Nevada Corporation, originated in 1961 by Donald E. Bently, is a manufacturer of electronic hardware and software instrumentation for vibration monitoring on machinery. Its subsidiary, BRDRC, was created in 1982 to enhance theoretical knowledge on machine dynamic behavior leading to mechanical vibrations. The vibrations occur as side effects of the main machine processes. The enhancements developed by Dr. Muszynska’s contributions led BNC instrumentation to more efficient technological definition: today the instrumentation not only serves for measuring machine vibration, but also as the diagnostic and prognostic tool in machine maintenance. The knowledge-based link between vibration causes and effects led to preventive measures, thus to the development of machine vibration control technology. Dr. Muszynska brought to Bently Nevada Corporation an academic excellence in the area of Mechanical Engineering’s Dynamics of Rotating Machinery. Dr. Muszynska maintains friendly relationship with BNC and the new company, started by Donald E. Bently, Bently Pressurized Bearings in 2002.

Prior to joining BNC, Dr. Muszynska held an Associate Professorship at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of the Sciences, where she conducted research on vibrations and machine dynamics. She also taught post-graduate classes on Vibration and Mechanical System Stability from 1967 through 1979.

From 1975 to 1977, she was a Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon, France, where she taught Mechanics and Machine Dynamics and wrote a Student Manual on this subject. She was a Visiting Scientist at the University of Dayton, Ohio, from January 1980 through June 1981, during which time she worked on a contract for Wright Patterson Air Force Base involving Vibration Control of Turbomachinery Blades. She also taught the class on Dynamics of Rotating Machinery to the University of Dayton graduate students.

During her career, Dr. Muszynska has authored or co-authored over 250 technical papers on Mechanical Vibration Theory, Nonlinear Vibrations, Vibration Control, and Rotating Machine Dynamics and Vibrational Diagnostics. Her major contributions consist of the introduction of modal modeling to such systems as machinery rotors in fluid environment. Her other contributions are in stability theory of mechanical systems, in vibration control, and in bladed disk dynamics. She introduced adequate models of such phenomena as rotor-to-stator rubbing, looseness in rotor systems, lateral/torsional vibrations of rotors. Based on experimental results obtained together with Donald E. Bently, she published in 1986 the consistent theory of instability of machine shafts rotating in fluid environment. Its simplified version is now accepted as Bently Nevada training standard. Also working with Bently, she formalized and popularized application of modal testing of rotating systems with fluid interaction, as well as the implementation of the Solid/Fluid System Dynamic Stiffness concept. The experimental discovery and adequate modeling of the second and higher modes of the rotor instability phenomena – fluid whirl and fluid whip is one of her significant achievements.

Several of Dr. Muszynska’s publications were nationally recognized: Dr. Muszynska’s paper on Modal Analysis of Rotating Machines received the "Best Paper of the Year 1986" award from the American Society for Experimental Mechanics. The report from research on Influence of Rubbing on Rotordynamics, on which Dr. Muszynska was principal researcher, has been given an award by NASA in the category of Invention/New Technology. Dr. Muszynska's paper, Stability and Instability of a Two-Mode Rotor Supported by Two Fluid-Lubricated Bearings, co-authored by J. Grant, received the "Best Paper of the Year 1991" award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Gas Turbine Division, Structures & Dynamics Committee.

Dr. Muszynska served as the Scientific/Technical Editor of several books, such as Polish Academy of Science's Yearly Journal "Nonlinear Vibration Problems" (1967 – 1980), Machine Dynamics (PASci, 1974), Vibration Control (PASci, 1978), Instability in Rotating Machinery (NASA, 1985), Rotating Machinery Dynamics (ASME, 1987), Don Bently Through the Eyes of Others (Bird Rock Publishing House, 1995).

Dr. Muszynska has traveled extensively, actively participating in numerous scientific conferences, giving lectures at courses and university seminars in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. She has also organized or co-organized many international scientific meetings, such as the Second and the Sixth International Conferences on Nonlinear Oscillations (Warsaw 1962, Poznan 1972, Poland), workshops on Machine Dynamics (Jablonna, Poland, 1978, 1979), the International Symposium on Instability in Rotating Machinery (Carson City, Nevada, June 1985), the Session on Rotating Machinery Dynamics at the 11th Biennial ASME Design Engineering Division Conference on Vibration and Noise (Boston, Massachusetts, September 1987), the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth International Symposia on Transport Phenomena, Dynamics, and Design of Rotating Machinery (Honolulu, Hawaii, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996), and the Rotor Dynamic Session at the ASME Turbo Expo 1994 Land, Sea, and Air (The Hague, Netherlands, 1994). In 1996, Dr. Muszynska became the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee for the Seventh International Symposium on Transport Phenomena and Dynamics of Rotating Machinery, Honolulu, HI, 1998. She organized a well-received and very successful symposium for over 200 international participants, and was the Scientific Editor of the more than 1800-page Symposium Proceedings (printed and CD ROM versions). In 2002 and 1003, she was the member of the Organizing Committee of the Second International Symposium on Stability of Rotating Machinery (ISCORMA-2), Gdansk, August, 4 – 8, 2003. She was co-Editor of the proceedings of the ISCORMA-2. Currently she is involved in organizing ISCORMA-3, which will take place in Cleveland, OH, in September 2005.

In 1985, she was a part-time Associate Professor at the University of Nevada in Reno (UNR) and a Faculty Member of the UNR College of Engineering (1985-1989). In 1985, she lectured to UNR students on Mechanical System Vibrations.

Dr. Muszynska is a member of the ASME. In 1986-88, she was a member of the ASME Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound. From 1988 to 1994, Dr. Muszynska served as an Associate Editor of the Transactions of the ASME Journal of Vibrations and Acoustics. In 1994, Dr. Muszynska received the prestigious grade of Fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Dr. Muszynska received the 1996 Distinguished Research Award for Research Achievements in the Field of Rotating Machinery from the Pacific Center of the Thermal Fluid Engineering.

Dr. Muszynska was honored as the “Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 1997” by the Douglas County Republican Women’s Club.

Dr. Muszynska was honored by the International Biographical Centre Cambridge, UK, as an “International Woman of the Year 1999/2000”. Dr. Muszynska is also listed in the publications Marquis Who’s Who in American Women, Who’s Who in Polish-American, Marquis Who’s Who in America -- Science and Engineering, and Marquis Who’s Who in the World.

In 2004, Donald E. Bently, globally recognized authority on rotor dynamics and vibration monitoring and diagnostics, and Agnes Muszynska, have established a $1 million fund with the Cleveland State University Foundation to create the Donald Bently and Agnes Muszynska Endowed Chair in Rotating Machinery in Cleveland State’s Fenn College of Engineering. The Chair will pay lasting tribute to their remarkable, two-decade joint research accomplishments in the dynamics and diagnostics of rotating machinery. The Bently and Muszynska Chair was originally awarded to Dr. Jerzy Sawicki, a tenured, full-time faculty member and professor of mechanical engineering.

In 2004, Donald E. Bently and Agnes Muszynska have established two permanent foundations in Korea: the first endowment of $1 million is at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, at the Nuclear and Quantum Engineering Department to create the Donald Bently and Agnes Muszynska Endowed Chair Professorship in Energy. The first recipient of this Endowed Chair Dr. Jong H. Kim. The second endowment of $500,000 is at the Korea University in Seoul, at the School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, to create the Donald Bently and Agnes Muszynska Endowed Chair Professorship in Life Sciences. The first recipient of this Endowed Chair is Dr. Jung S. Kim.

Dr. Muszynska is a member and the Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary International Club, and a member of the Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences of America.

Dr. Muszynska has one son and two grandchildren.