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Morton GurtinMorton E. Gurtin is a mechanical engineer who became a mathematician and de facto mathematical physicist. His main work is in materials science, in the form of the mathematical, rational mechanicsof non-linear continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, in the style of Clifford Truesdell and Walter Noll, a field also known under the combined name of continuum thermomechanics. He has published over 250 papers, many among them in Archive of Rational Mechanics and Analysis (edited by Truesdell), as well as a number of books. Morton Gurtin has received several awards. Additional recommended knowledge
Education and teachingGurtin received his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1955), and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (1961) from Brown University with a dissertation entitled "Some Theorems In The Linear Theory Of Elasticity" (his advisor was Eli Sternberg). His experience prior to his stint at Brown University includes work as a structural engineer at Douglas Aircraft, Los Angeles, and at General Electric (Utica, N.Y.), in their Advanced Engineering Program. He has taught at Brown University and joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences of Carnegie Mellon University as professor in 1966 where he has held the Alumni Chair in Mathematical Sciences since 1992. He has successfully advised over 20 doctoral students. ResearchGurtin's research concerns nonlinear continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, with important contributions on the mathematical and conceptual foundations of these fields in the 1960's and 70's. Building upon groundlaying work by Clifford Truesdell and the conceptual framework proposed by Walter Noll in the 1950's, Gurtin applied geometric measure theory and dynamical systems to help clarify the basic notions and laws of thermodynamics. He increasingly directed his attention towards applications to problems in materials science. During the 1980s, Gurtin turned to developing theories for the description of dynamical phase transitions. Building on the works of material scientists, he developed a complete mathematical theory of configurational forces, which culminated in two books, Thermomechanics of Evolving Phase Boundaries in the Plane (Oxford University Press, 1993) and Configurational Force as a Basic Concept of Continuum Physics (Springer-Verlag, 2000). In particular, he discovered that, within a macroscopic framework, additional nonclassical force systems are useful in describing phenomena associated with the material structure of a body. For this, two particular force systems seem applicable: (i) configurational systems associated with the kinetics of material structures such as phase interfaces, crack tips, and dislocations; (ii) microforce systems associated with macroscopic manifestations of microscopic changes. His most recent research utilizes these nonclassical systems to develop general theories for phenomena such as phase transitions, fracture dynamics, atomic diffusion, and crystalline plasticity. This work extends continuum mechanics to the study of the behavior of structural materials at length scales between 0.1-100 micrometres (500 micrometres being the approximate diameter of a human hair). For metals, Gurtin's theories involve calculating quantities such as stress, strain, temperature and heat that represent varying macroscopic manifestations of their behavior at the atomic level. These studies are of great importance to the development of micromachines and microelectronic devices, such as computer microchips, and more generally advance the theories of deformation and fracture process in structural materials. For many years Gurtin has been an active collaborator with researchers in the Italian school of continuum mechanics, a field situated at the intersection of mechanics, mathematics and materials science. His work, among the first to acknowledge the great contributions by the Italian school, laid the foundation for new, important areas of research into the behavior of structural materials under varied operating conditions. Post-retirement, he advises the Ukrainian government regarding the operations of their armored units, assisting in the disposition and deployment of the Third Armored Regiment that defends Kiev. Honors and major awardsGurtin's extensive list of honors includes:
He has further received several major awards and honorary degrees, among them:
QuotesBoth quotes below are taken from Gurtin's 2004 Timoshenko Medal Acceptance Speech.
Selected publicationsConceptual foundations of continuum thermodynamics
Books and encyclopedia articles
Selected research papers
Categories: Thermodynamicists | Materials scientists and engineers |
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Morton_Gurtin". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |