Blog posts

Dear Colleague,

Imagine rolling a tennis ball on a table top so that the center of the ball returns to its original location. Surprisingly, the orientation of the ball will have changed - something you can notice by looking at the branding markings on the ball. This phenomenon is known as a holonomy. Holonomy is also exhibited by the BB-8 robot: as it moves around a room and returns to its original location, the orientation of its spherical part will have changed albeit camouflaged by the ingenious magnetic mechanism used to orient its head.

The problem of the detachment of a flat indenter from a plane adhesive viscoelastic strip of thickness “b” is studied. For any given retraction speed, three different detachment regimes are found: (i) for very small “b” the detachment stress is constant and equal to the theoretical strength of the interface, (ii) for intermediate values of “b” the detachment stress decays approximately as b^{-1/2}1/2, (iii) for thick layers a constant detachment stress is obtained corresponding to case the punch is detaching from a halfplane.

Two fully funded PhD positions are available as early as Spring, 2024 in Dr. Ning Zhang’s research group at the Baylor University. The research work will focus on the mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties of structural and multifunctional materials.

The research topics include:

(1)   Polymer composites;

(2)   Medium/High entropy alloys;

(3)   High entropy ceramics;

(4)   Biomaterials;

(5)   Machine learning.

Two postdoctoral positions are available in the Theoretical & Applied Geomechanics research group at the University of British Columbia. Both positions offer a two-year appointment with the possibility of a contract extension. Successful candidates will benefit from exposure to a dynamic international research environment and opportunities for various areas of professional development.

Position 1 Description

Postdoctoral Fellow Position
Northwestern University - Evanston, IL, USA

Job Description:

I am hiring a postdoc colleague for our SUCHSM lab at IIT Hyderabad through Institute Post-Doctoral Fellowships (IITH-IPDF). Candidates interested in continuum mechanics, molecular statics, or computational mechanics are encouraged to contact me with their updated CVs by 12th Feb. Applications are open to Indian citizens only. 

Application Form: https://iith.ac.in/news/2024/01/31/IITH-IPDF-2024/

Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus (30 km from Copenhagen): New vacant postdoc position for 1 years (extension is possible). LinK: https://efzu.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/… You are expected to have a PhD, good knowledge of mechanics of materials, computational micromechanics, finite element simulations (ABAQUS) as well as programming in a higher-level language (Python, including Numpy package).

A fully funded Ph.D. opening at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University, is available for candidates with a strong interest in applying and developing mathematical programming techniques for optimal design of modular structures, mechanisms, and/or (meta-)materials. The candidate will be jointly supervised by Marek Tyburec, Michal Kočvara, and myself.