News & Events

2016-2017 SEGIM Seminar Series

		Professor Cusatis Presents Plenary Lecture On Friday, October 21, 2016 Professor Gianluca Cusatis was invited to give the Plenary Lecture at the 22nd DYMAT Technical Meeting: Experimental testing and modelling of brittle materials at high strain rates. Professor Cusatis presented his information on "The Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM) for Fracture Dynamics and Rate EFfect in Concrete: Theory, Calibration and Applications". Click here for his presentation.
		Shiva Esna Ashari Esfahani is Awarded Best Poster Award At the 50th U.S. Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium held by the American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA), Ph.D. Student Shiva Esna Ashari Esfahani was awarded the Best Poster Award. The title of the poster, "Evaluation of a modeling framework capturing the evolution of permeability in crushable granular solids." Shiva worked with Arghya Das, and Professor Giuseppe Buscarnera on the research.
		Profssor Zdeněk P. Bažant Receives the Austrian Cross of Honor The Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art of the 1st class was established by the National Council for scientific or artistic achievements by Federal Law of May 1955. At the same time, the Austrian National Council established the "Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art", which is awarded as "Cross of Honour, First Class." Professor Zdeněk P. Bažant received this presitigious honor on May 11, 2016 and he was the 78th person to receive this honor since its inception in 1960. Additionally, Professor Bažant is the first engineer to be recognized. Professor Bažant is receiving the medal from the President of Austria, Heinz Fischer.
		New EMI Medal Zdeněk P. Bažant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention The ASCE Board of Direction approved at its January 8, 2015 meeting the new Zdeněk P. Bažant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention. The newly established Society award will be administered by the Engineering Mechanics Institute of ASCE. Many thanks to Professor Franz Ulm (M.I.T.) for leading the effort to establish the award! The purpose of the award is to recognize an individual for significant contributions to the engineering science of failure and damage prevention
		Journal of Applied Mechanics just published a paper entitled "Why Fracking Works" by Prof. Zdeněk P. Bažant and his co-authors (JAM, volume 81, paper 101010, 2014). This paper is of great interest to both mechanicians and engineers in the petroleum industry. The pdf file of the full paper is available for download.
		On June 2 and 3, Prof. Bažant was invited for a two-day visit at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to discuss challenges and opportunities of current hydraulic fracturing technologies for unconventional energy recovery. The lecture was very well attended and spurred intense discussion on possible collaboration between SEGIM and LANL. The pdf file of the full presentation is available for download.
		From May 23 to May 31, 2014, Dr. Cusatis visited Monash University, Swinburne University, University of New South Wales, and University of Sydney in Australia, and gave lectures on microplane model and lattice discrete particle model. The figure shows Dr. Cusatis was visiting Civil Engineering Department at Monash University.
		On May 22, 2014, young students from Chute Middle Schoole visited Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Northwestern. Dr. Jovanca Smith， a fellow in the program of Reach for the Stars, arranged this visit to give middle school students the opportunity to experience a university campus, view research labs, as well as interact with various undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members. For most students, this was the first time they have had the opportunity to visit a campus. The figure shows Mr. Mohammed Al-Naggar was organizing a competition for boat design.
		Dr. David Corr was honored with 2014 University Teaching Award at a ceremony on Tuesday, May 20, 2014. He has been named Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Clinical Professor. Filled with practical learning experiences, case studies and real world examples, Corr's classes are among some of the most popular classes of engineering students. In fact, one student remarked, "I have rarely encountered such dedication to his students’ mastery of the material."
		Dr. Giuseppe Buscarnera has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The CAREER program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards for new faculty members. The program recognizes and supports early career development of teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.