David Ewins departure is cruel for vibrations in rotating machinery community and will leave a great void.

He had a career at the interface between academy and industry. He was a pragmatic scientist who conducted his research works by keeping in touch with industrial applications to understand their technology issues and to identify the underlying scientific challenges. He mainly worked with the aerospace and defense industry, with a longstanding collaboration with Rolls-Royce.

He studied Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College and then undertook PhD research at Cambridge University. Then he was appointed Professor of Vibration Engineering at Imperial College and set up the Centre of Vibration Engineering.  He later became Director of the BLADE laboratory at Bristol University.

His research topics carried out with theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches, concerned the Structural Dynamics, more specifically the modal analysis and the nonlinear dynamics responses of Bladed-Disk, with currently a particular attention on the joints and interfaces in turbomachinery. He is the author of several books, especially on Modal Testing, and of at least 70 journal papers.

This globe-trotter scientist has held Visiting Professor Appointments mainly in France, Switzerland, USA and Singapore. He has a great number of invited conferences and short courses all over the world.

His charisma and his scientific skills allowed him to serve on advisory boards in both academe and industry:  ASME, European CleanSky Programme, Rolls-Royce and INSA Lyon to name just a few.

Moreover, he is highly recognized in the international scientific societies: Fellow of the Royal Society, of the Royal Academy of Engineering, of the Society for Experimental Mechanics in USA.

It should be mentioned that in 2015 he was awarded the prestigious ASME Den Hartog Award for lifetime contributions to the teaching and practice of vibration.