Spring 2008:   The Materials Division of ASME is pleased to announce the creation of The Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Medal in honor of Dr. Sia Nemat- Nasser, Director of the Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials at UC San Diego and Distinguished Professor of Mechanics and Materials. This award is given to recognize research excellence in the areas of experimental, computational, and theoretical mechanics and materials by young investigators who are within 10 years after their Ph.D. degree, with special emphasis placed on under-represented minorities and women.  

I found very interesting web site (at least for me). That is World Universities’ ranking on the Web (WR).

by Juil Yoon, Zhen Zhang, Nanshu Lu, Zhigang Suo

As well pointed out by Journal Club of March 2007, the flexible electronics is an emerging technology.

In practice, the SiN stripes or pads are periodically patterned on silicon, so the spacing effect on dislocation injection from sharp features deserves attention. As in Figure 1, the SiN stripes with residue stress , of width L and thickness h, are periodically patterned with spacing S. In the numerical calculation, we take shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio of Si3N4 to be 54.3 GPa and 0.27, and those of silicon 68.1GPa and 0.22, the same as in Ref.[1].

As you know, the volumetric expansion by 9% during the water-to-ice transition can generate tremendous pressure in a confined space is a common sense. As a result, one may expect freezing water to also fracture rocks.

However, in a recent article in Science, Bernard Hallet explains the power of the 9% water-to-ice expansion in confined spaces is undeniable, but it may rarely be significant for rocks under natural conditions, because it requires a tight orchestration of unusual conditions. Unless the rocks are essentially saturated with water and frozen from all sides, the expansion can simply be accommodated by the flow of water into empty pores, or out of the rock through its unfrozen side.

I think it may be of interest to mechanics. Read more
I hope to hear opinions from people who know about the breaking mechanics of rocks.

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Assistant/Associate Professor

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor level in CAD/CAM. The starting date will be July 1, 2007, or as soon as possible thereafter.

The successful candidate will hold a Ph.D. degree or equivalent in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field and will be expected to register as a Professional Engineer in British Columbia. The Department has an Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in High Performance Virtual Machining supported by NSERC and Pratt & Whitney Canada. In addition to the regular faculty appointment, the successful candidate will be appointed as NSERC-Pratt & Whitney Canada Associate Industrial Research Chair for a five-year period following the successful renewal of the IRC. He/She will be expected to participate in virtual machining research. We are particularly interested in candidates who have strong practical engineering skills and experience, and who are keen to teach Engineering Design courses at the undergraduate level and CAD/CAM courses at the graduate level. Further information on the department is available at www.mech.ubc.ca, and information on the employment environment in the Faculty of Applied Science is available at www.apsc.ubc.ca/careers.

The University of British Columbia hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity. All qualified persons are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. The position is subject to final budgetary approval. Applicants should submit a detailed resume, a statement (1-2 pages) of research and teaching interests, and names and addresses (fax/email included) of four referees to Professor Nimal Rajapakse, P.Eng., Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z4. The deadline for receipt of applications is November 30, 2006. Please do not forward applications by email.