Zhigang Suo's blog

On the Web of Science my name appears sometimes as Suo Z and sometimes as Suo ZG.  If I search for Suo Z*, papers by a biologist named Suo ZM mix in.  Now Suo is a very rare name.  I cannot imagine how Wang JS searches for his papers.  Last year Michelle Oyen and I talked about assigning a unique identifier to each researcher, much like assigning an ISBN to each edition of a book, or assigning a DOI to each paper.

Rob Wood teaches a course on micro/nano robotics, and asks me to give a 30-minute tutorial on the theory of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs).  I attach my slides, which might be useful to you if you'd like to include this topic in your class.  The tutorial draws upon work in the literature, as well as recent work in my group:

Early this week the number of registered users passed 6000.  Our growth rate remains nearly a constant, about 10 new users per day. In January Teng plotted some basic statistics of iMechanica. 

I'm attaching slides of a talk that I gave yesterday at the Schlumberger-Doll Research Center.  In preparing the talk, I made liberal use of slides prepared by Wei Hong for his own presentations.  The talk is mainly based on the following papers:

In today's class of complex analysis, my co-instructor Scott Norris was lecturing on resonance.  He mentioned a YouTube video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  Also instructive is the entry of the bridge on Wikipedia. 

In a previous post, Learning to be a PhD advisor, I wrote about learning to do my job from students.  Over the years, I have also learned from writings of other scientists on doing research, its dynamics:  competition, despair, and exhilaration...  Here is a small sample that occurs to me this morning. 

In preparing cases for faculty appointments, my colleagues in other fields often ask about citations of each candidate and his or her comparees.  Despite obvious resistance, my colleagues give following reasons:

You are cordially invited to attend a reception, hosted by Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, during the MRS Fall Meeting, on Monday, 26 November 2007, from 7:30 pm to 10 pm, at Independence Room East, 2nd Floor, Sheraton Boston Hotel & Towers, 39 Dalton Street, Boston, MA.

Dean Venky Narayanamurti, Joanna Aizenberg, Michael Aziz, Shriram Ramanathan, Frans Spaepen, Zhigang Suo, Joost Vlassak

The warm reception to a previous post on learning to be a PhD advisor reminded me of a book, whose  title now appears as the title of this new post.  The book was written by Jack E. Oliver, a geologist, and was published in 1991 by Columbia University Press.  Looking at the book again the other day, I found the original receipt, dated 19 October 1991, from Chaucer's Bookstore, in Santa Barbara, where I started as an assistant professor at UCSB in 1989.  How delightful! 

Launched on September 11, 2006, iMechanica is the web of mechanics and mechanicians.  The mission of iMechanica is twofold:

We professors usually start our jobs unprepared. In our days as students, we are considered talented if we can solve problems posed by our professors. We might be even considered brilliant if we can solve them quickly and make a few extensions. After solving a few such problems, we write a thesis. We are then entrusted with a job as a professor. We soon realize that the skill of solving problems posed by others only plays a minor role in our jobs.

• G. M. Whitesides, Writing a paper. Advanced Materials 15, 1375-1377, 2004.  This three-page essay by a prolific professor at Harvard advocates a process:  start writing a paper at the same time you start a research project.  Every thinking person should read this essay, and give the process a try.