Knauss became an assistant professor and carried out research on fracture propagation in
viscoelastic materials on behalf of
NASA, which was relevant to solid rocket engines. In 1969 he became Associate Professor and in 1978 Professor of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics. From 2001 he held the Von Karman Professorship and in 2004 he retired. In 2010, he was awarded the
Timoshenko Medal for fundamental contributions to fracture mechanics, including mixed-type fractures, dynamic fractures, interface and adhesion fractures, and microscale characterization of material behavior and failure with an emphasis on experimental mechanics. In 1986/87 he received the Humboldt Research Prize, working at Universities of
Karlsruhe and
Kassel. In 1977 he gave lectures in the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, later being named a Foreign Member and receiving the Kapitza Medal in 1997. In 1995 the
Murray Medal of the
Society for Experimental Mechanics. In 1998 he became a member of the
National Academy of Engineering for contributions on time-dependent fracture mechanics of polymers, at interfaces and under dynamic loads. In 2001 he received the
Koiter Medal from the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was the co-founder with
Igor Emri of the
Mechanics of Time Dependent Materials journal. Knauss advised aerospace companies such as
Lockheed,
Rocketdyne,
Aerojet-General, Hercules,
General Dynamics, and
General Electric (GE Space Division) as well as polymer chemistry companies such as
DuPont and
Firestone. The
Society for Experimental Mechanics introduced the Wolfgang Knauss Young Investigator Award after him in 2018. == Awards and recognition ==