2:56 p.m., Sept. 17, 2009----Zhigang Suo, Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, has been selected to deliver the 2009 Nowinski Lecture at the University of Delaware on Friday, Oct. 2, at 10 a.m., in Room 106 of the Composites Manufacturing Science Laboratory.

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The lecture series was initiated in 1975 in honor of the late Jerzy L. Nowinski, who was H. Fletcher Brown Professor at the University of Delaware from 1961 to 1973 and is recognized for his contributions to applied mechanics. Each year, one outstanding individual in this field is invited to present a lecture in the series.

Suo's talk will address the mechanics of soft active materials, which have both solid-like and fluid-like properties, with the fluid-like properties making the material “softer” than an ordinary solid. These materials have broad applications in drug delivery, tissue engineering, microfluidics, and the oil industry.

Suo and his research group are attempting to formulate theories that address commonly asked questions about soft active materials: How do stress, electric field, and chemical potential interplay to cause large deformation? Why do abrupt changes, or instabilities, occur? His talk will outline the basic theories and several specific phenomena arising in applications, focusing on large deformation and instability.

Suo earned a bachelor's degree in engineering mechanics from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 1985. After earning his Ph.D. degree in engineering science from Harvard in 1989, Suo joined the faculty of the University of California at Santa Barbara and established a group studying the mechanics of materials and structures. The group moved to Princeton University in 1997 and to Harvard in 2003.

With Teng Li, Suo co-founded iMechanica, a web of mechanics and mechanicians that now has over 14,500 registered users. He is a member of the executive committee of the Applied Mechanics Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a member at large of the U.S. National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

Suo is a past winner of the Pi Tau Sigma Gold medal and the Special Achievement Award for Young Investigators in Applied Mechanics, both from ASME. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008 for “fundamental and applied contributions to the thermo-mechanical performance of electronic material systems, actuator materials, and composites.”

For more information about the event, contact Betty Bonavita at [Bonavita@udel.edu] or (302) 831-6975.

Article by Diane Kukich