Liviu Librescu (Romanian pronunciation:[ˈlivjuliˈbresku]; Hebrew: ליביו ליברסקו; August 18, 1930 – April 16, 2007) was a Romanian–American scientist and engineer. A prominent academic in addition to being a survivor of the Holocaust, his major research fields were aeroelasticity and aerodynamics.
Librescu is most widely known for his actions during the Virginia Tech shooting, when he held the doors to his lecture hall closed, allowing all but one of his students enough time to escape through the windows.[3] Shot and killed during the attack, Librescu was posthumously awarded the Order of the Star of Romania, the country's highest civilian honor. Coincidentally, Librescu's act of heroism happened on Nisan 27 in the Jewish lunar calendar. That date is Yom HaShoah, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.
At the time of his death, he was Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech.[4]
Life and career
Liviu Librescu was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in the city of Ploiești, Romania. After Romania allied with Nazi Germany in World War II, his family was deported to a labor camp in Transnistria, and later, along with thousands of other Jews, was deported to a ghetto in the Romanian city of Focșani.[5] His wife, Marlena, who is also a Holocaust survivor, told Israeli Channel 10 TV the day after his death, "We were in Romania during the Second World War, and we were Jews there among the Germans, and among the anti-Semitic Romanians."[5] Dorothea Weisbuch, a cousin of Librescu living in Romania, said in an interview to Romanian newspaper Cotidianul: "He was an extraordinarily gifted person and very altruistic. When he was little, he was very curious and knew everything, so that I thought he would become very conceited, but it did not happen so; he was of a rare modesty."[6]
His career stalled in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to Nicolae Ceaușescu's government.[5] When Librescu requested permission to emigrate to Israel, the Academy of Science of Romania fired him.[5] In 1976, a smuggled research manuscript that he had published in the Netherlands drew him international attention in the growing field of material dynamics.[8]
From 1979 to 1986, Librescu was Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel Aviv University and taught at the Technion in Haifa.[9] In 1985, he left on sabbatical for the United States, where he served as Professor at Virginia Tech in its Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, where he remained until his death.[9][10] 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.[11] Most recently, he was co-chair of the International Organizing Committee of the 7th International Congress on Thermal Stress, Taipei, Taiwan, June 4–7, 2007, for which he had been scheduled to give the keynote lecture.[4][11] According to his wife, no Virginia Tech professor has ever published more articles than Librescu.[9]
Response and behavior of structures to underwater and in-air explosions
Multifunctional and functionally graded material structures.
Death and legacy
Librescu's memorial stone on the Virginia Tech campus
At age 76,[9] Librescu was the oldest of the 32 people who were murdered in the Virginia Tech shooting. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho entered the Norris Hall Engineering Building and opened fire on classrooms. Librescu, who taught a solid mechanics class in Room 204 in the Norris Hall during April 2007, held the door of his classroom shut while the gunman attempted to enter it and yelled to his students to escape through the windows. While the shooter tried to nudge open the door, Librescu managed to prevent him from entering until most of his students had escaped through the windows. After kicking open the window screens, the students successfully escaped. Some suffered leg injuries while landing on the ground two floors below, others survived after landing on the shrubbery just below the window and then ran either to some ambulances pulling up or to the nearest bus stop.[12][13][14] Librescu was shot four times through the door,[15] including one through his wrist watch. Of the 23 registered students in his class, Minal Panchal, a grad student from Mumbai, India, was the only student in the room who lost her life, while two others, who were injured while taking cover in a corner, made it out alive.[16] It was then noted that after the armed aggressor forced his way inside the room, he was enraged after the majority of students escaped. Before leaving the room, Cho confronted Professor Librescu and student Panchal who were lying on the ground next to the door and fatally shot them in the temple.
A number of Librescu's students have called him a hero because of his actions. Caroline Merrey, a senior, said she and about 20 other students scrambled through the windows as Librescu shouted for them to hurry.[15] Merrey said, "I don't think I would be here if it wasn't for [Librescu]."[17] 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.[9]
Following the murder of Librescu, at the request of his family and with the assistance of Gov. Tim Kaine, his body was released on April 17[18] and he received a funeral service at an Orthodox Jewish funeral home in Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York.[15] On April 20, he was interred in Israel.[19][20][21] In his native Romania, his picture was placed on a table at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, and a candle was lit. People laid flowers nearby.[5]
That day we saw horror, but we also saw quiet acts of courage. We saw this courage in a teacher named Liviu Librescu. With the gunman set to enter his class, this brave professor blocked the door with his body while his students fled to safety. On the Day of Remembrance, this Holocaust survivor gave his own life so that others may live. And this morning we honor his memory and we take strength from his example.
Honors and awards
Librescu received many academic honors during his work in the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department 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 the Frank J. Maher Award for Excellence in Engineering Education (2005)[23] and an ASME diploma (2005) expressing "deep appreciation for the valuable services in advancing the engineering profession".[11]
Posthumously, Professor Librescu was commended by Traian Băsescu, the President of Romania, with the Order of the Star of Romania with the rank of Grand Cross, "as a sign of high appreciation and gratitude for the entire scientific and academic activity, as well as for the heroism shown in the course of the tragic events which took place on April 16th, 2007, [...] through which he saved the lives of his students, sacrificing his own life."[24] The ChabadHasidic Movement named its Jewish Student Center at Virginia Tech after him.[25]
The classroom of the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey was dedicated to the memory of Liviu Librescu in April 2009 through a donation from The Azeez Family and Foundation of Egg Harbor Township. Jane B. Stark, who is Executive Director of the Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage in Woodbine, New Jersey, said "This man, who endured so much during the Holocaust, thought of his students’ safety before his own in a time of crisis. ... He deserves to be remembered for these heroic actions."[26]
Professor Librescu was also awarded the 2007 Facilitator Award by Stetson University College of Law's Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy.
A gift to Columbia Law School from alumnus Ira Greenstein '85 honored Professor Librescu's heroism during the Virginia Tech shooting and established a professorship in his name—the "Liviu Librescu Professor of Law." This professorship is awarded at the discretion of the Dean, who seeks to appoint to the Librescu Professorship a member of the faculty with an expertise in national security or social justice. Matthew Waxman currently holds the Librescu Professorship.[28] He is an expert in national security law and international law, including issues such as executive power, international human rights and constitutional rights, military force and armed conflict, terrorism, cybersecurity, and maritime disputes.
Cederbaum, G.; Elishakoff, I; Aboudi, J.; Librescu, L. (1992). Random Vibrations and Reliability of Composite Structures. Lancaster-Basel: Technomic Publishing Co. Bibcode:1992tech.book.....C.
Librescu, Liviu (1976). Elastostatics and Kinetics of Anisotropic and Heterogeneous Shell-Type Structures. Leyden: Noordhoff International. ISBN978-90-286-0035-5. OCLC2092328.
Librescu, Liviu (1969). Statica şi dinamica structurilor elastice anizotrope şi eterogene (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România. OCLC17866878.
^Morrison, James. "Embassy Row." The Washington Times. Tuesday April 27, 2010. 2. Retrieved on November 27, 2010. "Romania has named the street in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest in honor of a Romanian-born professor and Holocaust survivor who gave up his life to save his students from a crazed gunman at Virginia Tech three years ago. ."
