William
"Bill"
Weins

Dr. William Weins, faculty member in the UNL Mechanical Engineering Department, died November 3, 2001, at the age of 48, after a hard-fought battle with cancer. The WEINS SCHOLARSHIP FUND has been established as a memorial to honor Dr. Weins.

Bill Weins knew how to draw the best out of students. Dr. David Lou, chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, said of Dr. Weins, "You never found him to be discouraged. He was always so positive." He received department, university, and national awards for teaching excellence. In addition to teaching classes in Mechanical Engineering, Professor Weins:

Served as undergraduate advisor for hundreds of mechanical engineering students
Advised 28 Master's students and 7 Ph.D. students
Served many years as advisor for the student chapter of the American Society of Metals and the engineering honorary, Pi Tau Sigma
Taught courses in the University Foundations Program, aimed at getting first-year students off to a good start
Taught courses in the University Honors Program
Advised teams of students in the national Ethanol Vehicle Challenge during 1997-2000

Dr. Weins was nationally known for his research in failure analysis and corrosion. He served for many years as an expert witness to legal proceedings in these two areas. His research produced 36 publications and over 50 presentations at national and international meetings. He carried out many years of funded research for the railroad industry and was recognized for receiving the most industrial funding among faculty at the University of Nebraska.

Dr. Weins earned public attention when he volunteered his time in studying corrosion on the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Along with mechanical engineering colleagues and students, he studied the battleship's structural stability to determine whether the rate of fuel leakage from the wreck will change over time. He also served as a consultant on the August 2000 raising of the H. L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine lost in 1864.

Dr. Weins received his Ph.D. in Metallurgy from Iowa State University in 1980. He was a Registered Metallurgical Engineer and a member of the following professional societies:

American Society for Metals (ASM)
American Institute for Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (AIME)
National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE)
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
International Metallographic Society (IMS)

The WEINS SCHOLARSHIP FUND has been established by the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Fund, administered by the University of Nebraska Foundation, will provide undergraduate scholarships or graduate fellowships to full-time students in the UNL Department of Mechanical Engineering. General information concerning the University of Nebraska Foundation is available on their website.

For more information concerning a contribution to the WEINS SCHOLARSHIP FUND, please contact:

Karen S. Moellering, Director of Development
College of Engineering and Technology, UNL
1111 Lincoln Mall, Suite 300
Lincoln, NE 68508
(402) 472-0429, (800) 432-3216, ext. 0429, or kmoellerin@foundation.nebraska.edu