EMI NEWS
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EMI establishes new Mindlin Medal Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize USNC/TAM, NAE and NRC Recent Reports
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Inaugural International Conference of the Engineering Mechanics Institute fast approaching EM08, the Inaugural International Conference of the Engineering Mechanics Institute hosted by the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Minnesota will take place on May 18-21. EM08 will feature nearly 500 technical presentations in up to twelve concurrent sessions over three full days, with participants from 34 countries. These technical presentations cover a wide range of the branches of mechanics including: computational mechanics, inverse problems, risk analysis for a wide range of engineered systems, probabilistic mechanics, structural reliability, geomechanics, granular materials, control and health monitoring of civil structures, the mechanics of pavements and paving materials, bridge engineering, fatigue and fracture, solid mechanics, and fluid mechanics. In addition to the these traditional areas, mini-symposia have been organized on novel topics including the multi-scale behavior of damage and failure mechanics, mechanics of biologically inspired materials, cardiovascular fluid mechanics, and the interaction of fluid flow and biota. Keynote presentations will be given by James Rice, Ted Belytschko, Christian Soize, Mory Gharib, Steve Cowin, and Phil Liu. The St. Anthony Falls Laboratory 70th Anniversary Symposium will be held on Tuesday, May 20. Fourteen committee meetings will take place on Sunday and one on Monday (see schedule). A reception will take place on Monday, May 19 at the Weissman Art Museum. On Tuesday, May 20 a banquet will follow a social hour at the McNamara Alumni Center. The conference will also be the venue for the presentation of several prestigious awards. For more information about EM08, please consult the conference web page which includes the detailed final program. On-line registration is open. The registration desk will be open starting at 2 pm on Sunday, May 18 on the first floor of Coffman Memorial Union. Professors Roberto Ballarini, Bojan B. Guzina, and Steven F. Wojtkiewicz, all of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Minnesota, are the conference Co-Chairs. EMI of ASCE announces the creation of a new award, the Raymond D. Mindlin Medal Created as a result of an initiative of the Engineering Mechanics Division and the Engineering Mechanics Institute to honor the late Prof. Raymond D. Mindlin, a well known applied mechanics Columbia University professor and researcher, the Raymond D. Mindlin Award recognizes outstanding research contributions to applied solid mechanics. Mindlin enrolled in 1924 at Columbia and received a B.A in 1928, followed by a B.S. in 1931, and by a C.E. degree in 1932. While a graduate research assistant, he attended the summer courses Stephen Timoshenko organized at the University of Michigan in 1933, 1934, and 1935. For his doctoral research Mindlin addressed a fundamental problem in theoretical elasticity: determining the stresses in an elastic half-space subjected to a sub-surface point load. A summary of his results was published in September 1935 in the Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences in Paris. The full paper was published in Physics (now the Journal of Applied Physics) in 1936, the year Mindlin received the Ph.D. degree. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1940. In 1942 Mindlin was co-opted by the Applied Physics Laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he played a significant role in the development of the proximity fuse, one of the major achievements in the scientific war effort. For his part in its success he was presented with the Presidential Medal for Merit, the highest decoration awarded to civilians. He returned to Columbia in 1945 as an associate professor, and two years later attained the rank of professor. Over his eight-year association as consultant to the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Mindlin published a small monograph on the dynamics of package cushioning, a document of great importance to designers of containers for protection of electronic equipment from mechanical shock and vibration. He conducted studies on waves and vibrations in isotropic elastic plates and on high-frequency vibrations of crystal plates. His work on isotropic bars and plates led to results in use world-wide in development and design of electromechanical filters and solid delay lines. At the request of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, he prepared a report entitled “An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Vibrations of Elastic Plates.” His papers from the late ’40s and early ’50s contributed to the start of lively activity in this field of generalized elastic continua, and stimulated applications to areas as diverse as the mechanics of laminated and of fiber-reinforced materials, and of framed structures. In 1967 he was appointed James Kip Finch Professor of Applied Science, a post he held this post until his retirement in 1975. He served with devotion the profession which he made his life’s work, through his research, his teaching, his advisory capacity to numerous government agencies, and his activities in various scientific and technical societies. He chaired the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Committee on Applied Mechanics of the Structural Engineering Division, the precursor of the Engineering Mechanics Division, it-self the precursor of the Engineering Mechanics Institute. The breadth and depth of Mindlin’s scholarship earned him recognition in the form of copious honors and awards. He was elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (1966) and of the National Academy of Sciences (1973). He received the Research Prize (1958) and the von Karman Medal (1961) of the ASCE; the Timoshenko Medal (1964) and the ASME Medal (1976) from the ASME; the Trent-Crede Award of the Acoustical Society of America (1971); the Frocht Award of the SESA (1974); the Great Teacher Award (1960) and the Egleston Medal (1971) from Columbia University; an Honorary D.Sc. degree from Northwestern University (1975); a Naval Ordnance Development Award (1945) and the C. B. Sawyer Award of the Army Electronics Command (1967). His most noteworthy honors, both bestowed by the U.S. Government were the Presidential Medal for Merit (1946), and the National Medal of Science (1979). Mindlin died on November 22, 1987, at age 81. The Raymond D. Mindlin Award recognizes outstanding research contributions to applied solid mechanics. ASCE membership is not a requirement. It will be awarded for the first time in 2009. Nominations are due November 1, 2008 (for details see http://www.asce.org/pressroom/honors/mindlin_award.cfm ). Fourth Biot Conference on Poromechanics to be held at Columbia University CALL FOR PAPERS The Fourth Biot Conference on Poromechanics Columbia University, New York June 8-10, 2009 The Fourth Biot Conference on Poromechanics will be held at Columbia University on June 8-10, 2009. Columbia University was the home of Maurice A. Biot during the period from 1937-1945. The Fourth Biot Conference will also emphasize applications of poromechanics to new and emerging fields, including life science, earth science, and new materials, in addition to the traditional areas of poromechanics such as geotechnical engineering, petroleum engineering, acoustics, etc. Examples of Technical Sessions:
Conference Co-Chairs are Hoe I. Ling, Andrew Smyth, and Raimondo Betti, all of Columbia University. Conference Web Site: http://www.civil.columbia.edu/biot Conference E-mail: biot@civil.columbia.edu Send your one-page abstract to: biot@civil.columbia.edu Deadline: May 31, 2008 The ASCE Board of direction recently announced the winners of five Society Awards recognizing major contributions in the area of mechanics. The Maurice A. Biot Medal was established to recognize the lifetime achievement of Dr. Maurice A. Biot and is awarded to an individual who has made outstanding research contributions to the mechanics of porous materials. Jean-François Allard, Pr. Dr. Ing. (Université du Maine) is the 2008 winner of the Maurice A. Biot Medal for his outstanding research contributions in extending Biot theory to the acoustics of air filled sound absorbing porous materials by providing models and measuring techniques for the industry. Professor Allard has made major contributions in the acoustics of sound absorbing materials. He has extended the pioneering work of Maurice A. Biot on wave propagation in porous materials, which was published in 1956, by developing and applying the theory to the propagation and absorption of sound in air filled porous materials. This complements the work of others who have focused on geomaterials and materials filled with liquid. Professor Allard’s work has particular relevance in today's world. In particular, noise generated by transportation and industry is now a major concern for public health and one out of four inhabitants in an urban environment suffers from noise pollution, making the ability to predict and to optimize the acoustic properties of sound absorbing and insulating materials increasingly important. The problems addressed and solved by Professor Allard have been particularly challenging since sound propagation in air filled porous media is more complicated than when pores are filled with liquid, as there are a large number of material properties to be determined. Professor Allard successfully adapted the Biot theory for air filled porous materials and developed several measurements techniques to determine the material parameters. Today, predictions of performance of sound absorbing and sound insulating materials, such as plastic foams and mineral wool materials, used in building acoustic applications, car manufacturing, and the aeronautics industry, are performed using software based on Professor Allard’s model. His book Propagation of Sound in Porous Media—Modeling Sound Absorbing Materials, published in 1993, is highly cited. The Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal recognizes distinguished achievement in safety and reliability studies applicable any branch of civil engineering. The 2008 Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal is presented to Rudiger Rackwitz, Dr. Ing. (Technical University of Munich) for seminal contributions to the development of the modern theory of structural safety and reliability and risk-based optimal design, and for his leadership in both academia and industry in developing and applying probabilistic design criteria. Professor Rackwitz has been an international leader for more than 40 years in developing new theories of the behavior of structures under uncertainty. His work has advanced the fundamental understanding of reliability modeling, providing insight into safety performance during earthquakes, windstorms, blast and other man-made and environmental loadings. His research is unique in that he is very highly respected among mathematicians and theoreticians for his contributions to new theories and algorithms (some of which bear his name), and also among practitioners and code personnel for his refinement of practical models and calibration for applications. Many of his advancements have under-girded the development of a new generation of probabilistically based codes for the European Union. Professor Rackwitz has contributed generously his time serving on numerous professional committees, many of which he chaired, and organizing international workshops and conferences. While leading an institute at the Technical University of Munich, he has guided the education of many of today’s stars in structural reliability around the world. The Nathan M. Newmark Medal is bestowed upon a member of the Society who, through contributions in structural mechanics, has substantially strengthened the scientific base of structural engineering, these contributions having been made in the form of papers or other written presentations. The 2008 winner of the Nathan M. Newmark Medal is George Z. Voyiadjis, D. Sc., F.ASCE (Louisiana State University) for his outstanding contributions to the fields of structural mechanics and geomechanics, his fundamental research in constitutive modeling and characterization of damage mechanisms in metals, composites, and soils, and his pioneering contributions in multi-scale modeling and locations problems. Dr. Voyiadjis’ accomplishments in the general field of solid mechanics and inelastic behavior of materials in particular are well known nationally and internationally. He has published a large number of papers in technical journals and several books. He has not only developed a number of widely used nonlinear constitutive models for steel as well as ceramics and composite materials but he has gone beyond the study of stresses and deformations to the estimation and description of damage, a question of ultimate practical interest. He has also been able to combine his theoretical developments with practical applications to a number of important problems. He serves on the editorial board of several journals, including the Journal of Engineering Mechanics and the International Journal of Plasticity. His most important recent work has been an analysis of problems of damage using finite element methods. The Robert H. Scanlan Medal is awarded to an individual in recognition of distinguished achievement in engineering mechanics based upon scholarly contributions to both theory and practice. The areas of achievement will generally be structural mechanics, wind engineering and aerodynamics. The 2008 Robert H. Scanlan Medal is presented to Nicholas P. Jones, Ph.D., M.ASCE (Johns Hopkins University) for his many contributions in the fields of aerodynamics of bridges and full-scale monitoring of structures. Dr. Jones has made many notable contributions to mechanics and its applications to real world problems, one of the key criteria for the Scanlan Medal. The following examples attest to these substantial contributions. From the beginning of his career Dr. Jones availed himself of the opportunity to work closely with the late Professor Scanlan. This cooperation facilitated Dr. Jones starting to work in the field of wind engineering with particular emphasis on long-span bridge aerodynamics. From this productive partnership came significant enhancements in our understanding of the complexities of bridge aerodynamics, especially the multi-mode coupled flutter. Dr. Jones also took the lead on two other aspects of bridge aerodynamics dealing with full-scale monitoring and study of rain-wind induced vibrations of the stay cables of cable-stayed bridges. He studied several bridges in collaboration with others that included deck motion as well as cable vibrations. These full-scale observations further enhanced our understanding of bridge behavior under winds and complemented the findings of the model-based simulations. In addition to his work in aerodynamics, Dr. Jones has been involved in a number of other studies dealing with mechanics such as damping in bridges and buildings. He has also contributed significantly to full-scale monitoring of structures through the development of data acquisition systems for field applications, data analysis and system identification with applications to bridges, stay cables, and low-rise structures exposed to hurricane winds. Dr. Jones and his students have also contributed to the area of risk assessment of structures subjected to wind and earthquakes. The Theodore von Karman Medal is awarded to an individual in recognition of distinguished achievement in engineering mechanics, applicable to any branch of civil engineering. Sia Nemat-Nasser, Ph.D., M.ASCE (University of California-San Diego) is the 2008 winner of the Theodore von Karman Medal for his outstanding research contributions which have integrated experiment, theory, and computation, to unravel and model the fundamental mechanisms, at the nano- and micro-scales when relevant, of the response and failure modes of a broad class of natural and man-made materials. He has innovated new experimental tools and techniques and ingenious laboratory models to uncover the underpinning physics of material response and failure. At the UCSD, this has resulted in an activity in Solid Mechanics that is of prime significance. It is the home of the Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials (CEAM, initiated by a major grant from the US Army Research Office, in 1986). Dr. Nemat-Nasser has served as Director of CEAM since its inception. Many researchers have benefited from the establishment and continuation of this laboratory for testing materials at high strain rates that have contributed to advancements for testing methodologies that permit data gathering not previously available. The award citation reads: "For exceptional, distinguished and sustained contributions in thefields of micromechanics, granular materials, constitutive relations of materials, stability and dynamic behavior of solids and structures, and experimental and analytical methods in broad areas of engineering mechanics. " In selecting him for this award, the committee particularly noted his contributions to the impact his work has made in the profession. For more information on Engineering Mechanics awards, follow link:http://www.engmechinstitute.org/list.html
2008 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize awarded to Andrew Smyth The Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prizes recognize members of the Society, in any grade, who demonstrate notable achievements in research related to Civil Engineering. Preference is given to younger members (generally under 40 years of age) of early accomplishment who can be expected to continue fruitful careers in research. Dr. Andrew W. Smyth (Columbia University) has been selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers to receive a 2008 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize. The award citation reads: “for fundamental contributions in the highly efficient identification and modeling of non-linear deteriorating structural dynamics.” In selecting him for this award, the Huber Selection Committee commented that his research is characterized by thoroughness, novelty, relevance, and intelligent breakthroughs.
New Task Committee on Mechanics of Pavements The EMI Board of Governors recently approved the formation of a new Task Committee on Mechanics of Pavements within the New Initiatives Committee. Its initial lifetime of the Task Committee will two years. The new Task Committee will focus on the mechanical behavior of pavement structure and pavement materials. Two major tasks will be reviewing papers and organizing mini-symposia in the subject area at the annual EMI conference. The Task Committee will be chaired by Linbing Wang, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor in the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech and Associate Director, Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. He may be reached at wangl@vt.edu. Members may propose new task committees which will be created for a limited duration and may be provided with limited funding. The New Initiatives Committee, chaired by Professor Roger Ghanem (USC), will serve as the “incubator” of the task committees.
USNC/TAM, NAE and NRC Recent Reports The US National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics recently published short reports available as PDF files: Research Directions in Computational And Composite Mechanics (T. Belytschko et al.) discusses the future of computational mechanics and mechanics of composite materials, and addresses issues raised in the National Academy of Sciences report Rising Above the Gathering Storm (2007). Research in Fluid Dynamics: Meeting National Needs (2006), J. Gollub (Ed.) explains why research in fluid dynamics is expected to have major impacts on important national needs. Following the publication of the Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century, the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Engineering's Grand Challenges has identified 14 areas awaiting engineering solutions in the 21st century. For details visit http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/. The Committee on Integrated Computational Materials Engineering of the National Research Council has authored a forthcoming book, Integrated Computational Materials Engineering: A Transformational Discipline for Improved Competitiveness and National Security. A pre-publication PDF copy is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12199
EMI Members wishing to publish in the EMI newsletter announcements of interest to the EMI membership should send a draft of the proposed text to Professor Boris Jeremic, Editor of the EMI newsletter, at jeremic@ucdavis.edu.
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