Plenary Speakers

Prof. Kaushik Bhattacharya
Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Professor of Materials Science, California Institute of Technology, USA

Kaushik Bhattacharya is Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Professor of Materials Science as well as the Executive Officer for Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. His research concerns the mechanical behavior of solids, and specifically seeks to use theory to guide the development of new materials. He received his B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 1986, his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota in 1991 and his post-doctoral training at the Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences during 1991-1993. He joined Caltech in 1993. He has held visiting positions at Cornell University, Heriot-Watt University (Scotland), Max-Planck-Institute (Leipzig, Germany), University of Cambridge (England), Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore, India) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is a recipient of the Koiter Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2015), Special Achievements Award in Applied Mechanics from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2004), Young Investigator Prize from the Society of Engineering Science (2004) and the Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (1994). He is currently an Editor of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids. He has supervised 22 doctoral students and mentored 17 postdoctoral scholars, 23 of whom currently hold faculty positions at universities around the world.

Prof. David Steigmann
University of California, Berkeley, USA

Graduated in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (BSc 1979), PhD in Applied Mathematics from Brown University (1988). Academic appointments held at the University of Alberta (1988 –1997) and University of California Berkeley (1997 – present). Awarded the Engineering Science Medal of the Society of Engineering Science (2013) and the Levi-Civita Prize (2013). Elected Fellow of the Society of Engineering Science (2010). Editor-in Chief of Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids (2006– present). Extensive service on journal editorial boards, including Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Mathematik und Physik, International Journal of Non-linear Mechanics, IMA J. Applied Mathematics, Journal of Elasticity, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Research interests include mechanics of thin films and thin-film/substrate systems; electromagnetic phenomena in solid mechanics; applications to thin-film/substrate problems; surface stress, capillary phenomena, biological cell membranes, surfactant films; diffusive phenomena; finite elasticity; variational methods and elastic stability; tensile (membrane) structures; continuum mechanics; numerical analysis of ill-conditioned structural problems; thin shells; plasticity theory.  

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Prof. Nicolas Triantafyllidis
Ecole Polytechnique, France
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

Prof. Triantafyllidis has obtained his Ph.D. in engineering from Brown University. The same year he joined the faculty of the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA starting as an Assistant Professor and reaching the rank of Full Professor in the Departments of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics. In 2009 he moved to France to become CNRS Director of Research in the Solid Mechanics Laboratory and a Professor of Mechanics at the Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau. Prof. Triantafyllidis’ research is in the areas of stability in solids and structures, structural mechanics and nonlinear continuum mechanics. Over the years he has worked in sheet metal forming problems, large flexible space structures, composites and cellular materials, the geomechanics of the earth’s crust and stability issues in homogenization problems. More recently he worked on the thermomechanical stability of shape memory crystals. His recent interests are in multiphysics – i.e. problems involving interactions between mechanical, electromagnetic and electronic effects in solids – with applications in magneto-elasticity, electromagnetic forming, strain effects in semiconductors and flexible photovoltaics. Prof. Triantafyllidis has developed and taught a number of graduate and undergraduate courses in solid mechanics in the topics of stability of solids, micromechanical theories of solids (homogenization techniques), plate and shell theories, numerical techniques (finite elements), shape memory alloys and coupled mechanical-electromagnetic field theories. In addition, Prof. Triantafyllidis has collaborated extensively with researchers on both sides of the Atlantic and has served, through different functions, the international solid mechanics community.

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Prof. Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar
Temple Foundation Endowed Professor of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics
University of Texas at Austin, USA

Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar holds the Temple Foundation Professorship in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to this he was on the faculty at the University of Houston for 17 years. He received his Ph.D., in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 1982. His research is focused in the identification of constitutive and failure behavior of materials including fracture, fragmentation, strain localization and dynamic stability, ductile failure, nonlinear waves, multiscale experimental mechanics, mechanics of polymers. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Academy of Mechanics, the Society for Experimental Mechanics and the International Congress on Fracture. He was awarded the Murray Medal by the Society for Experimental Mechanics in June 2004 and the Drucker Medal in November 2015. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International of Fracture. He served as President of the International Congress on Fracture (2005-2009), Member of the Executive Committee of the Applied Mechanics Division of the ASME (2003-2008), and President of the American Academy of Mechanics (2011-2012). 

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