Robert Vichnevetsky, of Princeton, NJ, passed away on December 6, 2024 at Merwick Care Center in Plainsboro Township at the age of 94.  Robert was born in Brussels, Belgium.  His education included Brussels Free University with a Master in Mechanical-Electrical Engineering and a Doctorate in Mathematics.  He served in the 1950's for 2 years in the Belgian Air Force, at the time part of NATO.  His early career was a member, later director of EAI's European Computing and Research Center, newly established in Brussels to bring in new technologies to post-war recovering Europe, participating among others in the development of Europe's nuclear electric power program.  He moved in 1964, with his family, to the US to join EAI's Princeton Computing and Research Center, collaborating among others with the Apollo Space Program and became an Associate Fellow of AIAA, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  He joined Rutgers University in 1971, from which he retired in 2003 as Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – also retiring from Princeton University, where he had been a Visiting Research Scientist and Lecturer in the 1960's and Visiting Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the 1970's and 80's.

Important in those years was the new discipline of computer simulation, made possible by the appearance of new technologies including powerful electronic computers.  The mathematics of science and engineering used in industry had to be updated, leading to a new scientific community organized first as local, then national societies, then an international association named IMACS, the International Association for Mathematics and Computer Simulation.  Vichnevetsky played an important role in this process, in 1973 was elected President of IMACS bringing him, in the 1970's and 80's, to serve with UNESCO-Paris as a member of FIAAC – the Five International Associations Coordinating Committee aimed at giving human advice for the introduction of advanced technologies to the developing world, also establishing principles of non-interference of politics with the growing international science community.  It is the case that scientists are rated by their accomplishments, not any national or political affiliation, this resulting, in those cold war years, in difficulties between two worlds that had to be resolved with common understanding and diplomacy more than politics.

Other than for articles and books that he published, he was the founding editor of three international scientific journals, two of them with Elsevier-Amsterdam and one with World Scientific – Singapore, all three published to this day.  He was in 2005, elected to HOFEST – the Hall of Fame in Engineering, Science and Technology and presented with the Rockwell Medal.  Locally, he has been President de ULB AA, the Alumni Association of his Brussels Alma Mater in the US, was member of the Old Guard, the Nassau Club, the Community Without Walls and was a member of Le Cercle Francais de Princeton serving as President from 1992 to 2000.

His wife Rolande predeceased him in 1992.  He is survived by his beloved children, grandchildren and great grandchild.

Visitation will be on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 from 9:00AM to 11:00AM at Kimble Funeral Home, 1 Hamilton Avenue, Princeton, NJ followed by services beginning at 11:00AM.

Burial will take place at Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, NJ.