>From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liviu_Librescu
Liviu Librescu (August 18, 1930 - April 16, 2007) was a Romanian-born Israeli professor, whose most recent position was Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech. His major research fields were Aeroelasticity and Unsteady aerodynamics. The 76 year-old Holocaust survivor was shot and killed in the Virginia Tech massacre while holding off the gunman at his lecture hall entrance so his students could escape. Liviu Librescu was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in the city of Ploiesti, Romania. During World War II, his father, a lawyer, was interned in a labor camp in Transnistria while Liviu Librescu lived in the ghetto of Focsani. He survived the Holocaust to become an accomplished scientist in Romania. Librescu studied Aerospace Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, graduating in 1952 and continuing with a master at the same university. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics in 1969 at the Academia de Stiinte din România. >From 1953 to 1975 he worked as a researcher at Institute of Applied Mechanics, Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace Constructions of Academy of Science of Romania. Under the Romanian communist regime at the time, he was unable to emigrate to Israel. Eventually, the government permitted him to leave, but only after a direct request was made by the Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin to President of Romania Nicolae Ceausescu. Librescu emigrated to Israel in 1978. From 1979 to 1986 he was Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University. >From 1985 until his death, he served as Professor at Virginia Tech. 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. According to his wife, no other Virginia Tech professor has ever published more articles than Librescu. Librescu is survived by his wife, Marilena, and his sons Joseph and Lionel. At age 76, Librescu was among the thirty-two people who were murdered in the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007. He was killed during a class in the Norris Hall Engineering Building by a student (Cho Seung-hui, 23). Librescu held the door of his classroom shut while Cho was attempting to enter it; although he was shot through the door, he was able to prevent the gunman from entering the classroom until his students had escaped through the windows. A number of Librescu's students have called him a hero because of his actions, with one student, Asael Arad, saying that all the professor's students "lived because of him". 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 whilst many newspapers also reported him as the hero of the massacre. His death came on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, in Israel and Judaism. According to the family wishes, he will be buried in Israel. Librescu received many academic honors during his work 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 a Frank J. Maher Award for Excellence in Engineering Education (2005) and an ASME diploma expressing "the deep appreciation for the valuable services in advancing the engineering profession". Posthumously, Professor Librescu was commended by the President of Romania with the Star of Romania Order in the grade of Great Cross, "as a token of high appreciation for the entire scientific and universitarian activity, as well as for his heroic acts during the tragic events of April 16th 2007 in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus, when professor Librescu saved his students' lives at the cost of his own". xponent Partaking Of Greatness Maru rob
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