Bridging Continents: Leszek Demkowicz Retires After Distinguished Career in Theoretical and Applied Mathematics

At its essence, mathematics is utilized to solve problems to address real-world issues, from calculating the acoustics of submarines to developing code for electromagnetic waves used in oil and gas discovery. Whether you meet him as a professor, colleague, or mentor, it becomes evident that Leszek Demkowicz – Principal Faculty at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and a specialist in both theoretical and applied mathematics – embodies the very attributes that characterize his discipline.

With master’s degrees in both engineering mechanics and mathematics and, along with a Ph.D. and habilitation in engineering mechanics, Demkowicz exemplifies intelligence, rigor, and logical reasoning, always holding those around him to high standards. Despite facing personal hardships on his path, he balances his strong, steadfast exterior with a deep well of thoughtfulness and ingenuity.

Born in Bielsko-Biala, 60 miles from Cracow, Poland, Demkowicz's career traverses both decades and continents. While he initially envisioned his life and career would be rooted in his home country, the realities – bookended by politics and limited resources – left he and his wife with the difficult decision to uproot the family mulitple times, ultimately landing him in Texas. 

His desk adorned with a few carefully chosen family photos, one soon understands how his professional story is inseparable from his family. Through the years, he has instilled that same sense of kinship at the Institute that is present in his personal life.

A foundational member of the Oden Institute, Demkowicz has shaped its trajectory through research and the development of the curriculum for the Computational Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (CSEM) graduate program. “He has always prioritized education as one of the most important and impactful aspects of his professional life,” said Stefan Henneking, a former graduate student of Demkowicz’s and a current research associate with the OPTIMUS Center at the Institute.

A third generation engineer, Demkowicz, who leads the Electromagnetics and Acoustics Group, has contributed to the Institute's culture and sense of community. Among his enduring legacies are the establishment of the Oden Institute Seminar Series, which, like clockwork, takes place Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, except in the summer.

In addition, since COVID-19, Demkowicz hosts a daily coffee hour after lunch. Students, postdocs, and visiting and current faculty stop by his office for lively round-table discussions ranging from research to the adventures of daily life and recounts of Institute lore and history.

"Leszek is an incredible colleague. He was by Tinsley’s side from the very beginning of the Institute's birth: he was there on the day that Peter O’Donnell first came to visit, and he was there as Tinsley grew the Institute from TICOM to TICAM to ICES. He has been a pillar of strength as the Institute’s assistant director, not just to Tinsley but also to me,” said Karen Willcox, Oden Institute Director.

As Demkowicz approaches phased retirement after 50 years in academia, he reflected on the early years when he zig-zagged between continents to complete his education while advancing his research. 

In 1980, while pursuing his doctorate degree, Demkowicz was invited to The University of Texas at Austin by J. Tinsley Oden. The invitation, arranged by Prof. Janusz Orkisz from his home institute, Cracow University of Technology, marked the start of Demkowicz’s long association with UT. 

“It was very difficult year leaving my family in Poland – one of the toughest times in my career. My wife and I kept in touch via mail; I wrote 120 letters home and received 100 in return. The constant correspondence helped maintained our bond.”  

This first visit to UT led to a collaborative partnership with the Oden Institute’s founder, Dr. Oden - resulting in two joint papers and a lasting professional and personal friendship. After a year of research, in 1982 he returned to Poland to defend his dissertation. By this time, he had three sons and was balancing providing the necessities for his family with his emerging career. However, the imposition of martial law during the "Solidarity" movement led him to rethink his plans. (Solidarity was a broad anti-authoritarian social movement, using methods of civil resistance to advance the causes of workers' rights and social change.) 

“When martial law was imposed, two things happened. I was in charge in underground materials distribution, which was a bit risky. A year into that I sustained a back injury and ended up in bed for four months, until surgery - 24 hours after surgery, I applied to return to UT,” he said.

In 1983, Demkowicz moved back to Texas as a postdoc, now accompanied by his family – a travel adventure that was not for the faint of heart. Initially he taught two classes, an appointment that soon became full time. “I was a seasoned teacher by then and had co-authored ten papers with Dr. Oden,” he said.

Picture a dotted line between the U.S. and Poland as Demkowicz’s travels continued. He returned to his home country to complete “habilitation” in 1987 (the highest university degree in many European countries), followed by more time at UT, where he and his family spent the next three years. “It was a tough couple of years,” he recalled. “Our fourth child, a daughter, was born, and I was also building a house in Poland. I was running on minimal sleep.”

In the summer of 1990, Demkowicz and his family returned to Poland, where his second daugher was born. He accepted a chair and full professorship at Cracow University of Technology (CUT) and helped establish a master’s degree program in Computational Mechanics which he led from 1990-1993. “I had decided to focus on adaptive Finite Element (FE) methods, which included developing the theory of hp-methods, building two-dimensional (2D) and 3D FE hp-codes." These methods are applied to solve practical problems and to understand the larger behavior of a phenomena or structure by breaking it into pieces represented by mathematical equations. 

Concurrently, Demkowicz and Dr. Oden continued their collaborations on a major U.S. Navy project studying acoustics of submerged structures (submarines). “I came to Texas twice a year for the Navy Report meetings. The project was my financial life saver,” he said. His salary in Poland allowed him to support his family of seven for only half of each month.

The Institute, originally known as The Texas Institute for Computational Mechanics (TICOM) was renamed as the Texas Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (TICAM), and began expanding. In 1993 an invitation to return to UT in a permanent position was offered, this time as an associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics.

Demkowicz was once again faced with a dilemma. “We were comfortable in Poland; we built a home. I was the youngest member of Poland Academy of Science and the first president of the Polish Association of Computational Mechanics.” However, research progress remained slow after the demise of socialism. He accepted the offer, and became one of two assistant directors of TICAM.

Through the years, his research areas grew beyond FEM and hp-adaptive methods. Demkowicz and his group have developed original numerical methods for structural vibrations, analysis of acoustics of the human ear, dynamic modeling of gears, analysis of optical waveguides, calculation of radar crossections, borehole electromagnetics, and acoustics. 

For the last 15 years, he has done fundamental and original work on Discontinuous Petrov–Galerkin (DPG) methods, co-invented with Jay Gopalakrishnan from Portland State University, as well as space-time algorithms and error estimates for FEM approximations. “Leszek has called the discovery and subsequent research on the DPG method the ‘adventure of a lifetime,'" said Henneking.

On a personal note, Henneking said Leszek’s encouragement to look for a deeper understanding of the mathematics that underpin our everyday work has fundamentally shaped his own thinking. “As a mentor, he was able to offer the best guidance I could have hoped for at every moment of my doctoral studies. His mentorship is an example that I hope to live up to in my own life.”

Demkowicz has maintained a close collaboration with his alma mater as well as Poznan University of Technology, delivering short courses and plenary lectures in Poland, and hosting several of his Polish collaborators in Austin. 

In addition to serving as the Assistant Director of the Oden Institute, Demkowicz holds the W. A. “Tex” Moncrief, Jr. Chair in Computational Engineering and Sciences. He is a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the Cockrell School of Engineering, as well as mathematics. He has authored/co-authored seven books, including a monograph on adaptive methods (1986, in Polish) and co-authored with Professor Oden a textbook on Functional Analysis, as well as over 250 journal articles. 

His list of accolades is distinguished – he is the recipient of the Zienkiewicz Medal by the Polish Association for Computational Mechanics (PACM), where he is also an honorary member, the Computational Science Award by the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM), the ICES (now Oden Institute) Distinguished Research Award, and the Computational Mechanics Award by the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM). He is a Fellow of both IACM and USACM. In 2014, he became a foreign member of Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has recently been elected to the Executive Council of the IACM (2024-2030). 

"We all have the deepest admiration for Leszek's scholarship, his rigor, his commitment to our students, and most of all his loyalty to the Oden Institute. I am glad we have three years of phased retirement to prepare, because I don’t know what we will do without him,” said Willcox.

In April 2023, the Institute held an international workshop to celebrate Demkowicz’s 70th birthday. Professor Oden, who passed away in August 2023, shared this tribute at the time about his longtime colleague: “Leszek is loved by students and colleagues and is a legendary teacher. He is an indefatigable worker, constantly working on papers, proposals, books, class notes and reports and is a vital member of our faculty and a dear lifelong friend.”

It's hard to say which Demkowicz is prouder of - his professional career or his family. He has been honored to have graduated 25 Ph.D. and seven M.S. students and is currently supervising two Ph.D. students. “Professionally it’s important that people are using my work, learned here and propagating out into the world - I consider that to be my number one product,” he said. Though he is satisfied of the work he has accomplished so far, the twinkle in his eye when talking about his family reveals his true loves.

As he approaches retirement, he looks forward to spending more time with his family which includes five children, and 22 grandchildren, 14 of which live in Texas and eight in Poland. He still maintains his family home in Poland, approximately 5700 miles from Austin, which to this day he says is still only about 98% complete, commenting that there is always something that needs work. During the phased retirement, Demkowicz will continue to work on his research and teach. 

Through groundbreaking research to advancing the mission of the Oden Institute, math-first solutions have been Demkowicz’s mainstay. Longtime Oden Institute colleague Thomas J.R. Hughes stated, “When I am asked what we do in the Oden Institute, I answer we do engineering and science and the way we do it is with mathematics and computation. Leszek has emphasized and maintained the importance of mathematics to this throughout his career, and he has kept the Institute focused on in its original style and mission.”