Javier García de Jalón, Full Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics and former professor at the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, passes away.
His research in the area of numerical methods applied to dynamic simulation and simulation of machines and mechanisms was recognized with international D'Alembert and IFToMMAward of Merit awards.
31 | 01 | 2025
Javier García de Jalón de la source, Full Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics and former professor at Tecnun-School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, died today in Madrid at the age of 75.
Javier García de Jalón was born in Zaragoza on May 27, 1949. In 1967 he began his Industrial Engineering programs of study at the San Sebastian campus , when the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra was only 5 years old. In 1971 he obtained the runner-up prize for the National End of degree program award . That same year he began teaching at the School of Engineering, at the same time he started his doctoral thesis under the direction of José María Bastero. He obtained the Chair in Applied Mathematics in 1980 and the Chair in Mechanical Engineering in 1982.
He was Deputy Director of the Calculation Center of Ceit (1974), director of the department of Applied Mechanical Engineering (1980) and Deputy Director of the School of Engineering until 1996. In 2000 he moved to Madrid to work at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
In 2011 he received the prestigious D'Alembert award , granted by the Technical committee on Multibody Systems and Nonlinear Dynamics of ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers); and the IFToMMAward of Merit, granted by the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science, for his research in the area of numerical methods applied to the dynamic simulation of machines and mechanisms.
He retired in September 2017 after being diagnosed with ALS. In 2019 he was recognized as a Laureate Engineer by the Royal Academy of Engineering of Madrid.
"Javier has gone straight to heaven. He was a teacher, a friend, a saint. A great professor and researcher as can be seen both in the international research awards and in the recognition by the students who considered him a close and brilliant professor," recalled Raúl Antón, current director of the School of Engineering at the University of Navarra. "Javier was a person who loved people and therefore brought out the best in the students and colleagues around him, whom he encouraged to think big. I know that in these almost 10 years that he has been with ELA every day he had visits from friends and he never stopped praying for Tecnun and for his friends, of whom there were many," he said.
