PLENARY LECTURERS
Plenary lectures will be delivered by prominent figures of great scientific reputation in the field of mechanics of materials. To date, the following scientists have confirmed their participation.
Professor Markus J. Buehler
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
SUMMARY
Markus J. Buehler is the McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT (an Institute-wide Endowed Chair), a member of the Center for Materials Science and Engineering, and the Center for Computational Science and Engineering at the Schwarzman College of Computing. He holds academic appointments in Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering. In his research, Professor Buehler pursues new modeling, design and manufacturing approaches for advanced biomaterials that offer greater resilience and a wide range of controllable properties from the nano- to the macroscale. His interests include a variety of functional material properties including mechanical, optical and biological, linking chemical features, hierarchical and multiscale structures, to performance in the context of physiological, pathological and other extreme conditions. His methods include molecular and multiscale modeling, design, as well as experimental synthesis and characterization.
INTERESTS
His particular interest lies in the mechanics of complex hierarchical materials with features across scales (e.g. nanotubes, graphene and natural biomaterial nanostructures including protein materials such as intermediate filaments and hair, collagen, silk and elastin, and other structural biomaterials). An expert in computational materials science and AI, he has pioneered the field of materiomics, and demonstrated broad impacts in the study of mechanical properties of complex materials, including predictive materials design and manufacturing. Between 2013-2020, Buehler served as Department Head of MIT’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He has held numerous other leadership roles at professional organizations, including a term as President of the Society of Engineering Science (SES).
Professor Norman A. Fleck, FREng, FRS
Professor of Mechanics and Materials Engineering Department
University of Cambridge, UK
SUMMARY
Norman Fleck is a Professor whose research concerns the mechanical behaviour of solids under different conditions at the microscopic level. His major contributions have arisen in the area of novel materials and their applications in a wide range of activities, including the aerospace, automotive and construction industries. Examples include his studies of failure under compression in fibre-reinforced composites, a combination of waste cellulose fibres, such as sawdust, and polymer resin.
INTERESTS
Norman is also known for his work on the properties of metal foams — air-filled materials that have potential as impact absorbers in cars — and on stiff but lightweight lattice materials that can be used in aircraft. Norman is notable for combining his theoretical understanding with enthusiasm for experiment and application. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2013 Warner T. Koiter Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in recognition of his leadership in the international solid mechanics community, and an honourary doctorate from Eindhoven University of Technology, also in 2013.
Professor Gerhard A. Holzapfel, Ph.D.
Professor of Biomechanics
Graz University of Technology Institute of Biomechanics, Austria
SUMMARY
Gerhard A. Holzapfel is Professor of Biomechanics and Head of the Institute of Biomechanics at Graz University of Technology (TUG), Austria, since 2007. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, and Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Until 2013 he was Professor of Biomechanics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, for 9 years (7 years as an Adjunct Professor). After his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in Graz he received an Erwin-Schrödinger Scholarship for foreign countries to be a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (1993-95). He achieved his Habilitation at TU Vienna in 1996 and received a START-Award in 1997, which is the most prestigious research award in Austria for young scientists. In the following years (1998-2004) he was the Head of a research group on “Computational Biomechanics” at TUG. Among several awards and honors in the past years he is listed in “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds: 2014” (Thomas Reuters), he received the Erwin Schrödinger Prize 2011 from the Austrian Academy of Sciences for his lifetime achievements, and he was awarded the 2021 William Prager Medal and the 2021 Warner T. Koiter Medal.
INTERESTS
Professor Holzapfel’s research includes experimental and computational biomechanics and mechanobiology with an emphasis on soft biological tissues, the cardiovascular system including blood vessels in health and disease, therapeutic interventions such as balloon angioplasty and stent implantation, polarized light and second-harmonic imaging microscopy, magnetic resonance imaging and medical image processing; nonlinear continuum mechanics, constitutive (multi-scale) modeling of solids at finite strains such as cross-linked actin networks, growth and remodeling, nonlinear finite element methods, fracture and material failure. His research has been supported by TUG, Austrian Science Fund, Austrian Academy of Sciences, State of Styria, Österreichische Nationalbank (Jubiläumsfonds), Austrian Exchange Service, KTH, Swedish Research Council, National Institutes of Health (NIH), The Royal Society, Carnegie Trust, European Commission and the private industry.
Professor Stelios Kyriakides
Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
University of Texas, USA
SUMMARY
Stelios Kyriakides received a B.Sc. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Bristol, U.K., and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology. He is Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin
INTERESTS
Kyriakides´ major technical interests are in the mechanics of solids, structures and materials, with an emphasis on instability of both structures and materials. His work is motivated by practical problems and usually involves combined experimental, analytical and numerical efforts. He has more than 275 publications, has co-authored two books, and has lectured extensively both nationally and internationally. He has pioneered propagating instabilities in structures such as offshore pipelines, bulges in elastic tubes, buckles in panels, and in materials such as fiber composites, shape memory alloys, cellular materials, wood, Lüders banding in metals, etc. He has significant contributions to plastic instabilities and crushing of structures, plasticity, forming problems in manufacturing, localization and ductile failure of metals, the mechanical behavior of composites, etc. He served as chair of the Executive Committee of the Applied Mechanics Division-ASME, as President of the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM), as chair of the US National Committee of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and is Editor of the International Journal of Solids and Structures. His recognitions include the Warner T. Koiter Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of ASME and AAM.
