iMechanica - harvard - Comments

Ph.D. study of fracture mechanics at Harvard University

Zhigang Suo — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:50:00 -0400

Sorry to see this message so late. Yes, fracture mechanics is a traditional strength here at Harvard. Quite a few projects are concerned with fracture. There will be some changes in coming years:

David Clarke, an expert on the mechnaical behavior of materials, will join the faculty of Harvard in January 2009.
John W. Hutchinson will retire in the Fall 2009.
We have just started a search for additional faculty members in mechanics.

Broad search vs. target of opportunity

Zhigang Suo — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:29:36 -0400

A broad search will likely miss someone like Ramanujan. At most universities, however, there is another procedure of recruiting, called target of opportunity. When a movable Ramanujan is identified, by whatever means, one can go through a process to convince the faculty and the university that this Ramanujan is indeed special. By contrast, a broad search is often used to recruit assistant professors.

Re: Which factors. And, why bother?

Ajit R. Jadhav — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:21:37 -0400

Dear Zhigang,

Permit me to be blunt. The following is not written to you in your personal capacity. The "you" is to be taken in a general sense.

Two points.

-- The advisor. Who do you intend to hire---the advisor or the graduate? In case the point has not sunk in: Who do you expect will show up in your class-room---the advisor or the graduate? Another point: Do you prefer to hire indoctrinated people with narrow vision?

-- The Department. The first part of the above argument, extended.

-- The University. No comments. If even the selection committee can ignore it, sure, I can, too!

Overall, do you think Srinivas Ramanujan would stand any chance with this part of the procedure, today, at Harvard? This was not a rhetorical question. I meant to ask it. ... Please be thoroughly honest---i.e., if you would answer it. (I suppose Harvard does, even today, give you enough rope to be honest on matters like these, without in the process jeopardizing your own position there.)

2. More importantly:

If the only candidates to be shortlisted are going to be those who would have gotten to know of the existence of the post through their advisors or departments anyway and therefore do not need to read it here (at iMechanica), then, why bother posting such ads here?

Is the idea simply to help others in showing off "prestige"?

Or is it, rather, entertainment for the rest of us?

Never mind. A lot of useless stuff does pass one by, as one lives life. (... Just think of a typical American newspaper / magazine---e.g., "Span" of the yesteryears... Why, even so many journal articles!! )

Which factors are important for a faculty applicant?

Zhigang Suo — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:16:00 -0400

Not sure I can provide any useful answer to this difficult question. Different places may have different practices. Not sure what I'll say is of any generality.

For an open search for assistant professors, when applications are in, members of the search committee will read the applications. The object is to select a few candidates to interview face to face. People seemed to be affected by the following factors (in no particular order):

The advisor of the candidate. Does the candidate come from a dynamic group, led by an advisor with good reputation?
The Department of the candidate. Does the Department have other excellent professors? Do they have any influence on the candidate?
The University of the candidate. This may become less relevant if the previous two are very positive.
The depth of the subject. Is the subject deep and lasting?
The originality of the work. Has the candidate broken any new ground?
The usefulness of the work. Has the candidate done anything useful?

When a candidate is interviewed, a few other factors come into play (again in no particular order):

The seminar.
The interview between the candidate and individual members of the faculty.
The meals.

All along, people may look for answers to the following questions. Can the candiate motivate the work? Is the motivation novel, or does the candidate regurgitate some popular motivations (e.g., nano-xyz, multiscale simulations, energy, bio-xyz) thoughtlessly? Is the work new and useful? Can the candidate defend the conclusions of the work? Does the candidate answer questions well? Is the candidate really the resourceful person behind the work? Will the candidate likely identify new and significant areas of research? Will the candidate enjoy the job? Will the candidate complement the strength of the existing members of the faculty?

Discouraged? No need. It is unrealistic to expect anyone to do something really new and useful and deep and lasting, all in a few years of graduate study. One hopes to find evidence for brilliance of mind, and capacity of work.

Prof. Zhigang, Which factors are important?

RoozbehSanaei — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:22:00 -0400

Prof. Zhigang

Actually, I am just a first semseter graduate student, but i am very eager to know which factors have importance in getting such positions in good universities such as Harvard. I saw most of faculty Have degrees from other famous american universites. Is it important?

Best Regards.

A rare opportunity

gautambalaram — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:50:09 -0400

I am a masters student presently from Imperial College London. I am working on alternative modeling of fracture and more specifically the Rice-Tracey model. I am using this to model adhesive fracture on a DCB specimen using FEA. I have a very keen interest in pursuing a PhD in the field of fracture mechanics and specifically in modeling of fracture. I would be glad if you could enlighten me whether there are any openings in this field. If yes, then I would be honoured to apply for this rare opportunity.

This is a great opportunity

gordman — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:47:48 -0500

This is a great opportunity for bright young students, Harvard is a reall landmark for the universitary environment world wide. Everyone would work hard for such an opportunity.

Nouveau Riche

crack modeling

agpkd2001 — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:41:56 -0500

I have just strated Abaqus learning,my thesis is about cracks in pipes I want to know which part of the mannual i should read it for modeling the cracks and analysisng it?actulaay ,i want to learn it as soon as possible,so would you please let me know what is the best way for this purpose?

Thanks a lot,

Thanks

Ahmed_Elbanna — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:37:01 -0500

Dear Zhigang

Thanks for the valuable information you have provided here.

Best,

Ahmed

Solid Mechanics and other positions at Harvard

Zhigang Suo — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:43:43 -0500

Ahmed: As you probably know well, at Harvard Jim Rice is active in the field of earth science. You may want to contact him directly. If you are interested in other fields where solid mechanics plays roles, you may want to contact other faculty memebers as well. Here are annoucements of two positions:

Hi Zhigang I am currently

Ahmed_Elbanna — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:13:24 -0500

Hi Zhigang

I am currently a PhD student in Caltech. I have strong interests in Applied Mechanics with special focus on solid mechanics and physics of earthquake rupture. I am expecting to graduate by 2009. Are there any opportunities for Post Doc. positions available at Harvard Solid Mechanics?

Best,

Ahmed

That would be great but

ilandron — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:54:12 -0400

That would be great but sounds a bit fantastic. To have access to Harvard classes must be a dream of many people.

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Drivers education software

PodCorps: record important events anywhere in the world

Zhigang Suo — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:24:01 -0400

PodCorps.org is an all-volunteer team of audio/video producers who record and publish important spoken-word events anywhere in the world. Here is Jon Udell's podcast interview with Doug Kaye, the founder of PodCorps.

Re: Videotaped Lectures

Biswajit Banerjee — Sat, 26 May 2007 21:37:53 -0400

I agree completely with Zhigang that a significant portion of our history is being lost even though we have the resources to record it. The case in point are live lectures by the giants of our field. One way to store some of this history is to record conference keynote talks and to disseminate them widely. A part of the conference fees can be used to pay for the recording, storage, and dissemination of these talks.

We already record the movements and activities of millions of people automatically via cameras in public places and other devices used by the National Security Agencies of several countries. So the technology is available to record entire courses or conferences automatically. The storage and dissemination of this data is costly. But it's a matter of time when we will be able to store all the information that we would ever want to and disseminate it via the web. It just needs a visionary company like Google to start the process. Though I would prefer the control of such data to be in the hands of more than one individual or group.

This reminds me of a related thing. Many of you go to conferences. Have you ever considered blogging about the talks on iMechanica?

Biswajit

A separate post...

Ajit R. Jadhav — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:26:32 -0400

Really speaking, I am neither competent nor so much interested about the main issue of this thread, namely, the practical aspects of making available to the public the videotaped lectures of the faculty at Harvard.

Of course, generally speaking, one would be in favor of having lectures videotaped--sometimes, even academics can be so worthy that their lectures ought to be preserved as a matter of institutional heritage. Yet, I guess I am not competent enough (competent, as in "competent authority") that I should comment on the various practical aspects so well put forth above.

What I have to say is in reference to the last paragraph. I have created a separate blog entry because the relation is so indirect. Please see: http://imechanica.org/node/1440. Thanks.