| Prof. Jacques Besson |
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Jacques Besson (born in 1963) obtained his PhD in 1990 on ceramic powder processing from Ecole des
Mines de Paris. He continued working on powder processing during his post-doc at UC-Santa Barbara (1990-91).
After entering CNRS (1992), he started working on rupture of metals (ductile,
brittle, transition, creep). He has published more than 120 peer reviewed papers
and has collaborated to four books.
He spent a sabbatical leave at HZG (former GKSS) in 2000 and at Electricité de France (Moret-sur-Loing)
in 2005.
He is now research professor at CNRS and currently head of the "Centre des Matériaux" CNRS-UMR 7633.
His work combines experimental investigations and advanced numerical techniques to better understand
failure of materials and structures. |
| Prof. Meinhard Kuna |
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Meinhard Kuna studied physics at the Technical University in Magdeburg, Germany. He graduated as PhD in
1977 at the institute for Solid State Physics at the Academy of Science in Halle, dealing with the
development of finite element methods in fracture mechanics. Later, he has been working as the head
of research departments at Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials in Freiburg and at
Materials Testing Institute at University of Stuttgart.
Since 1997, Prof. Kuna is professor of Applied Mechanics and Solid Mechanics at the Technische
Universität Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany. His research is devoted to fundamental and applied
problems in fracture mechanics, damage mechanics and fatigue crack growth. In particular, his
group is developing numerical methods (FEM, BEM, DEM) and software-tools for analyzing safety
and lifetime of structural components. Another topic is the constitutive modelling of material
behavior on the continuum level and on the micromechanical scale, with special focus on failure
and damage processes. Of special interest are brittle and ductile failure mechanisms in metals
and ceramics, and multi-field problems in smart materials. The experimental work is focused on
miniaturized materials testing.
Prof. Kuna published more than 400 articles in international journals or conference proceedings.
He was honored by the TEXTY award for his book about Finite Elements in Fracture Mechanics in
2013. He is engaged in academic societies like German Fracture Group, German Research Foundation
and European Structural Integrity Society. Since 2015, Prof. Kuna is an Editor-in-Chief of the
international journal Engineering Fracture Mechanics.
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| Prof. Andrzej Neimitz |
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Prof. Andrzej Neimitz is a professor at Kielce University of Technology, he was a founder
(1987) and President of the Polish Fracture Group, member of ESIS Council for 30 years,
vice-president of ESIS (2006-2010). In 2002 he was a co-chairman of the ESIS European
Conference on Fracture. He was involved in various fracture problems: fast crack growth,
fracture in creep environment, constraints in elastic-plastic problems, fracture mechanisms,
modelling in fracture, structural integrity. He visited several research centres abroad:
Northwestern University, 1979-1980, Michigan Technological University 1984-1985, EMPA
Dubendorf 1991, Imperial College, London, 1995, Rautaruuki, Finland, 2011. He published
about 190 journal and conference papers in the most prestigious fracture mechanics
journals. He is a member of several Research Committees and Societies in Poland
and abroad. He is a member of the several editorial boards of research journals
in Poland and abroad. He took part in five European projects and many grants from
Polish National Centre of Science. He was awarded among others with ESIS Award
of Merit, ESIS Honorary Membership, Prof. Stanislaw Kocanda Medal, doctor honoris
causa from Kielce University of Technology. |
| Prof. Zhiliang Zhang |
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Prof Zhiliang Zhang, founder of NTNU Nanomechanical Lab since 2006,
executive committee member of the European Structural Integrity Society (2010-2022),
has been supervisor and co-supervisor of in total more than 44 PhDs and post docs,
and 40 master students at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Before being appointed as a full Professor in Mechanics and Materials at the NTNU
in 2003, Zhang had worked at SINTEF Materials Technology, Trondheim, for 9
years, and played a central role in building up the competence of the Fracture
Mechanics group to an international level. Prof. Zhang was elected as the chairman
of the 20th European Conference on Fracture (ECF20) 2014 by the
Council of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS). Prof. Zhang
started his research in nanomechanics and nanotechnology when he was a visiting
scientist at Harvard University in 2000 and 2001. Currently he focuses on fracture
mechanics, hydrogen embrittlement, interface mechanics, material design and
nanomechanics by using combined experimental and multi-scale computational
simulation approaches. During the last 13 years Prof. Zhang has been the project
leader at NTNU for 12 externally funded projects with a total budget over 77
million NOK. He has published about 220 scientific papers (140 journal papers
and 80 conference papers) with the latest ones as an corresponding author
published in top journals such as Nature Communications, Nano Letters,
Nanoscale, SMALL, Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Journal
of Mechanics and Physics of Solids (JMPS), Polymer and Acta Materialia.
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