During the shootings occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech, the department of engineering science and mechanics lost two fine professors. Dr. Liviu Librescu was teaching solid mechanics class when the gunman initiated a two-minute massacre next door. Most of the students in his class escaped from the windows while Dr. Librescu held the door and did not survive when the gunman broke in. Another professor is Dr. Kevin Granata.
With a great many ties to VT, I have been following the tragic shootings there closely. While my former student (Nakhiah Goulbourne) and my former department head (Dick Benson) are both safe, I am afraid we may have lost one of our own this morning. From an AP report, a student stated that the instructor teaching a 9:05am mechanics class in 204 Norris Hall was killed. According to the timetable of classes at VT, this instructor would have been Liviu Librescu. I certainly hope the AP's report is wrong. As someone very interested in shell theories, I have spoken with Prof. Librescu many times and followed his work. His loss would be a great loss to our community.
This paper has been published in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 56 (2008), pp. 1609-1623 (doi:10.1016/j.jmps.2007.07.013).
Abstract
Head traumatic injury due to the impact of a flying golf ball is one of the severest injuries sustained on a golf course. This paper presents numerical simulation results based on the finite element (FE) method to investigate head injuries in children due to impacts by flying golf balls.
Terence Tao (one of the Fields Medal winners this year) has started blogging. He has a detailed discussion on the Navier-Stokes equations here. It's long but definitely worth reading - particularly because of the wide range of ideas that he talks about.
As many of you know, last year we had a lively debate prior to the launch of the j-club regarding the rules and regulations governing the functioning of the j-club. This continued in a more low-key fashion this year. One of the more important topics under discussion has been the selection of the future editors (which is to be done each year). I, and perhaps a few other people, had reasoned that the editor should be elected by popular vote. It was proposed that candidates will either self-nominate themselves or be nominated by other mechanicians.
Just a reminder that this Sunday, April 15 will be exactly 300 years since Leonhard Euler was born.
I am sure many mechanicians will toast this weekend on this extraordinnary anniversary to the person who laid down much of the foundations in mathematics and mechanics.
Some of the related links on the web are:
From the Call for Papers:
Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) represent the integration of miniaturized mechanical, chemical, fluidic, and optical devices with microelectronics. MEMS have a broad range of applications in optical- and radio-frequency communications, physical/chemical/biosensing, display technology, drug delivery, and the manipulation and isolation of cells.
First announcement and call for papers.
The symposium "Fundamentals of Nanoindentation and Nanotribology" will run for the fourth time at the Fall, 2007, Materials Research Society Meeting, Boston, MA, USA.
