ECCOMAS AWARD FOR THE BEST Ph.D THESES OF 2019 ON COMPUTATIONAL METHODS IN APPLIED SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING
The activities of the Evaluation Committee for the ECCOMAS award for the best PhD theses in 2019 were carried out in an online format due to the mobility restrictions resulting of the Covid-19 pandemic. As an answer to the call for tender, the ECCOMAS member associations nominated 18 theses (one thesis, awarded with a double international degree was nominated by two associations). The Evaluation Committee was composed by Manolis Papadrakakis (chairman), Rosa Donat, Vissarion Papadopoulos, Marek Behr and Pedro Díez (secretary).
After a discussion, all the candidate theses were assessed by the members of the Committee, accounting for the different relevant aspects of all of them. The assessment grids of all the members were added up and a shortlist of the best ranked ones was analyzed again in detail. Two theses ranked well above the others and therefore the committee has unanimously agreed on selecting them as the two winners.
The two winners are:
- Dr. Florian Feppon (France) for the thesis “Shape and topology optimization of multiphysics systems”.
- Dr. Frits de Prenter (The Netherlands) for the thesis “Preconditioned iterative solution techniques for immersed finite element methods – with applications in immersed isogeometric analysis for solid and fluid mechanics”.
These theses are outstanding works in Computational Methods in Applied Sciences combining excellent knowledge of both theory and practice, with special insight in the fundamental and computational aspects. The panel has appreciated the complementary on the focus of the scientific contributions: the first developing new mathematical methodologies, algorithms, their analysis and their application to the shape and topology optimization of multi-physics systems, and the latter analyzing the fundamental mechanisms underlying ill-conditioning and instability in immersed finite elements with applications to real-life engineering problems in solids and fluid mechanics. Both, the two winners are pieces of research that extend the frontiers of the fields of ECCOMAS, and open our community to new problems and methodologies.
The award decision was based on the relevance of the topics, the originality of the theses, their scientific content, the innovative numerical developments and the personal involvement of the candidates. Moreover, both theses are very well written and meticulously presented.
The list of finalists selected by the local-regional ECCOMAS Association is the following:
| Author | Title of the theses | Local Association | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Predrag Andric | The mechanics of crack-tip dislocation emission and twinning | SWICCOMAS | Switzerland |
| Jakub Both | Mathematical and Numerical Analysis of Flow in Deformable Porous Media´ | NOACM | Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Iceland |
| Marco Lucio Cerquaglia | Development of a fully-partitioned PFEM-FEM approach for fluid-structure interaction problems characterized by free surfaces, large solid deformations, and strong added-mass effects |
BNCTAM | Belgium |
| Vito Diana | Discrete Physically-Based Models in Solid Mechanics | GIMC / AIMETA | Italy |
| Martin Doškář | Wang tiling for modelling of heterogeneous materials | CEACM | Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, The Czech Republic |
| Nicola Ferro | Topology Optimization: Advanced Techniques for New Challenges | SIMAI | Italy |
| Ruben Ibañez | Advanced physics-based and data-driven strategies | SEMNI / CSMA | Spain / France |
| Tobias Kaiser | Computational modelling of non-simple and anisotropic materials | GACM | Germany |
| Julian Kochmann | Efficient FE- and FFT-based two-scale methods for microheterogeneous media | GAMM | Germany |
| Judit Muñoz Matute | Explicit-in-time Variational Formulations for Goal-Oriented Adaptivity | SEMA | Spain |
| Michal Olejnik | Modeling of interfacial flows with the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method | PACM | Poland |
| Ahmad Reshad Noori | Axisymmetric bending and flexural vibration analysis of heterogeneous (FGM) circular plates |
TCNTAM | Turkey |
| Igor André Rodrigues Lopez | Multi-Scale Modelling and Analysis of Multi-Phase Solids Using Second-Order Computational Homogenisation at Finite Strains with Parallel Computing | APMTAC | Portugal |
| Aviad Sasson | Doubly and Triply Periodic Parametric HFGMC For Nonlinearity and Damage Modeling of Multiphase Materials |
IACMM | Israel |
| Giorgos Tatsios | Advanced deterministic and stochastic kinetic modeling of gaseous microscale transport phenomena | GRACM | Greece |
| Tingting Zhao | The Developments of Multi-level Computational Methodologies for Discrete Element Modelling of Granular Materials |
UKACM | United Kingdom |