Congratulations to Assistant Professor Stavros Gaitanaros for receiving the 2016 IUTAM Bureau Prize in Solid Mechanics from the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM). Prof. Gaitanaros accepted the award during the closing ceremony of the organization’s international congress in Montreal on August 26.
IUTAM Bureau Prizes are awarded once every four years to three individuals under 35 for the best paper and presentation at the International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM); one is awarded in Fluid Mechanics, one in Solid Mechanics and one for the best poster. Gaitanaros won the prize in Solid Mechanics for his lecture on the effect of polydispersity on the crushing of open-cell random foams. The paper is co-authored by Prof. S. Kyriakides and Dr. A.M. Kraynik.
Prof. Gaitanaros leads a group on the mechanics of architected materials. He is interested in the study of large deformations, instabilities, shock phenomena, and fracture for material systems ranging from cellular solids to DNA nanostructures.