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Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Program

Submitted by John E. Dolbow on

The Department of Energy is once again calling for applications to its Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF) program. These fellowships cover full tuition and provide a generous stipend for up to four years, and they also provide travel support and matching funds for a computer. Undergraduate seniors or first and second year graduate students are eligible to apply.

Additional information, including an online application, is available here. Applications are due by January 10, 2007

Solid Mechanics Homework 16-20

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on
  • 16. Recommend a textbook that you think will help students in this course.  See recommendations from students who took this course before.
  • 17. Disclination (the cut-and-weld problem)
  • 18. Design a rotating disk to avert plastic deformation
  • 19. A half space of an elastic material subject to a periodic traction on the surface
  • 20. Orthotropy rescaling

Return to the outline of the course.

Madhav Mani

Submitted by Madhav Mani on

Hey, people often call me Mads which circumvents the ordeal of pronouncing my "real" name correctly which can be tricky. I'm a first year PhD student in applied mathematics. I am currently trying to balance doing courses and research with Michael Brenner, L. Mahadevan and Howard Stone.


My undergraduate and first masters are from Cambridge University, England, during which I studied Pure maths, Applied maths, statistics, mechanics (primarily fluid and some solid) and theoretical pysics.

My interests are primarily in mechanics (fluid, solid and bio). Apart from fluid mechanics I find problems in elasticity and viscoelasticty theory very curious and interesting (currently I am looking at friction in elastomers). I also like looking at biological systems where "structure reveals function". Even though I am primarily a theorist I really enjoy conducting table-top, so called cheap experiments, and talking to experimentalists in any area.

COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR MICRO AND NANO SYSTEMS

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Ninth U.S. National Congress on computational mechanics
July 22 -26, 2007. San Francisco, California


A mini-symposium on

COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR MICRO AND NANO SYSTEMS

Call for Papers
Micro and Nano Electro Mechanical Systems have recently attracted much attention from the industry and from the scientific community. MEMS are nowadays routinely met in various fields like in the automotive, aerospace and large consumer applications.
It can be said that for various micro systems the pioneering phase has been substituted by a phase of industrial applications. Hence, new challenges concerning reliability, optimization and increasing miniaturizations must be tackled by the designers. All these issues need a multi-disciplinary approach and must be supported by multi-physics numerical and experimental analyses able to contribute to the definition of a unified design and analysis methodology of MEMS and NEMS.

Modeling elastomers at Medinstill

Submitted by dbs on

I am a senior research engineer at Medical Instill Technologies, New Milford, CT. Our company is currently focused on designing and manufacturing innovative dispensing systems for pharmaceutical and nutritional products, and also their filling systems. You may visit our website (http://www.medinstill.com) for more information.

We are currently exploring elastomer-based dispensing systems for fluids of different viscosities. In relation to this project, we are interested in hiring somebody with a doctoral level education and who has exposure to modeling elastomers, particularly elastomer solid mechanics, adhesion between elastomers, and flow of fluids over elastomers.

Web journals threaten peer-review system

Submitted by Martijn Feron on

The peer review system has been the established way to select publicated research for decades. However, this way of publishing may come to an end.

New developments in this field embrace the idea that research should not be restricted by the iron grip of the journals. The value of the authors work is debated in cyberspace, leading to a number of consequences. Disadvantages include the possibility of a deluge of junk science due to the unfiltered publishing and online abuse concerning unfairly ridiculing rival's work. On the other side scientific discovery could be accelerated and online critiques may help detect mistakes or fraud more quickly.

Already the first initiatives are present, Philica, PLoS (Public Library of Science). Online journals are not boomingly popular, as they have attracted little attention so far. However, possibilities regarding reaching a broad audience in a fast way seem promising...

The 13th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics

Submitted by Horacio Espinosa on

Dear Colleagues:


The 13th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics (ICEM13, http://www.icem13.gr) will be held on July 1-6, 2007 in Alexandroupolis, Greece. It is our pleasure to announce that the Conference will include a special symposium organized by us entitled, “Plasticity, Fracture and Fatigue at the Micro and Nano Scales,” which will focus on recent developments in this area within the larger scope of assessing research needs in a variety of applications of interest.

The Boltzmann Distribution

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on
  • A small system in thermal contact with a large system
  • The Boltzmann factor
  • Partition function
  • The probability for a system in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir to be in a specific state
  • The probability for a system in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir to be in a configuration
  • Thermal fluctuation of an RNA molecule
  • A matter of words

Return to the outline of Statistical Mechanics.