This is an announcement about a vacant PhD Research/Teaching Assistant position in RPI, Troy, NY in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the field of Concrete computational mechanics.

The research involves:

Applications are invited for two PhD positions (four years) in the area of computational modelling in the Computational Mechanics of Materials group of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

ASME 2015 International Technical Conference and Exhibition on Packaging (InterPACK 2015) will be in the Fairmont San Francisco Hotel, San Francisco, California from July 6-9, 2015. You are invited to submit paper to the topic on Advances in Interconnect Technologies at the InterPACK 2015. Please see the attachment of call for paper and note the abstract deadline of Dec. 8, 2014.

In this paper we formulate a geometric theory of nonlinear thermoelasticity that can be used to calculate the time evolution of the temperature and thermal stress fields in a nonlinear elastic body. In particular, this formulation can be used to calculate residual thermal stresses. In this theory the material manifold (natural stress-free configuration of the body) is a Riemannian manifold with a temperature-dependent metric. Evolution of the geometry of the material manifold is governed by a generalized heat equation.

Our paper in the new journal Extreme Mechanics Letter has come online:  An elastomeric seal may leak by elastic deformation without any material damage. We describe elastic leak using a theoretical model, and watch a seal deform and leak using a transparent experimental setup. The elastomer seals the fluid by forming contact with surrounding hard materials. As the fluid pressure increases, the contact stress also increases but not as much.

Our paper has appeared in EML (Extreme Mechanics Letters) and can be downloaded.  Using strong fibers to reinforce a hydrogel is highly desirable but difficult. Such a composite would combine the attributes of a solid that provides strength and a liquid that transports matter. Most hydrogels, however, are brittle, allowing the fibers to cut through the hydrogel when the composite is loaded. Here we circumvent this problem by using a recently developed tough hydrogel.

The TMS Young Professionals Committee is organizing a "Meet the Candidate Poster Session" in conjunction with the general poster session of TMS 2015. This event is designed to create networking opportunities for young professionals and hopefully help them discover prospects for future employment. The deadline for abstract submission is extended to December 15, 2014. http://www.programmaster.org/TMS2015

The Meet the Candidate Poster Session will provide the opportunity for

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University (Canada).

Professor Wei Lu received the 2014 Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award. This award was presented to Dr. Lu by the president of ASME, jointly with the president of Pi Tau Sigma, during the 2014 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition. 

Descartes said: `I think, therefore I am’. Darwin wrote, ‘I think’. Unarguably, the brain is the most complex and mysterious part of our body that has intrigued both scientists and philosophers alike for centuries. It is the seat of our sensory perception, emotions, learning, memory, and consciousness. While the role of electrochemistry in the working of the brain and these processes have been investigated extensively in the last century, the role of mechanics or mechanical stimuli in controlling the structure and function of the brain has remained essentially elusive.