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Rensselaer Professor Catalin Picu Named Fellow of ASME
Nanomechanics Expert Cited for Research on
Multiscale Aspects of Deformation and
Fracture
Nanomechanics and multiscale modeling expert Catalin Picu,
professor in the Department of Mechanical,
Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, has been named a fellow of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
“We congratulate Dr. Picu on being elected a fellow of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This is the highest
recognition that can be bestowed by his peers,” said
David Rosowsky, dean of the School of Engineering
at Rensselaer. “Catalin is a stellar academic, a talented
engineer, and his research into the mechanics of micro- and
nanomaterials is at the forefront of modern electronics
manufacturing. We are honored to count him among the School of
Engineering’s growing list of society fellows.”
The ASME cited Picu for his
significant contributions to the field of mechanics of
materials: “His work on multiscale aspects of deformation and
fracture has been published in over 100 journal articles and
book chapters. He made advances in the understanding of the
nature of rate sensitivity in metals and polymers and of stress
production in polymeric materials.”
Picu joined Rensselaer as a faculty member in 1998. He was
named associate professor in 2003 and full professor in 2009.
Prior to Rensselaer, he served as a postdoctoral research
associate at Brown University, and a research assistant in the
Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. From 1990 to
1992, he was a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest in
Romania.
Picu is a faculty member of both the Multiscale Science and Engineering
Center (MSEC) and Scientific Computation
Research Center (SCOREC) at Rensselaer.
A prolific researcher, Picu is co-author of two books,
Strength of Materials for Mechanical Engineers and
Precision Mechanics Technologies for the Electronic
Industry, along with 11 book chapters, and more than 115
journal articles and conference proceedings. At Rensselaer, he
has advised 13 graduated doctoral students.
Picu’s research interests are related to the mechanical
behavior of materials. He leads the computational nanomechanics
lab at Rensselaer, and his group is focused on linking the
molecular structure, properties, and small-scale physics of a
material with the material’s behavior at the macroscale. The
work is a combination of computer modeling, advanced
simulation, and experimentation. His investigations include
studying the viscoelasticity and stress production in polymers;
modeling polymer nanocomposites; and dynamic strain aging in
aluminum alloys.
Along with publishing studies, Picu is a frequent editor. He
is a member of the editorial board of the International
Journal for Multiscale Computational Engineering, was
guest editor of the journal’s special issue on “Computational
Issues in Nanotechnology,” and was co-editor of the
Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on
Constitutive Laws for Engineering Materials. Picu is a
member of the ASME Elasticity Committee, and a member of the
scientific advisory board of the first and second International
Conference on Diffusion in Solids and Liquids in Aveiro,
Portugal.
Picu received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical
engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest in
Romania, and in 1995 earned his doctoral degree in applied
mechanics from Dartmouth College.
For more information on Picu’s research at Rensselaer,
visit:
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Published
May 31,
2011 |
Contact: Michael Mullaney
Phone: (518) 276-6161
E-mail: mullam@rpi.edu |
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