Paris was trained at Lehigh University in applied mechanics . He was a faculty associate at Boeing in the summer of 1955 , where he investigated the Comet fatigue ( material ) failure . His first paper on fracture mechanics was famously rejected by top journals . Paris joined Washington University in St. Louis in 1976 . In 2009 he became a professor emeritus and continued to teach
Comet
BOAC Flight 781
Paul C. Paris