U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) research scientist, Dr. John Michopoulos, is awarded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2015 Excellence in Research Award for outstanding intellectual contributions to the field of computing in engineering.
Presented August 4 at the ASME 35th Computers and Information in Engineering (CIE) Conference, Boston, Mass., the distinguished award recognizes accomplishments as evidenced by publications, documented testimonials from industry and academic colleagues, and impact on the field of computing in engineering. In particular, advances made in the synergistic applications of mechanical engineering and computer science.
This award reflects the highest honor bestowed to an active researcher by ASME's CIE division. According to the official description by ASME's CIE division, the award recognizes a person for outstanding research contributions in any field associated with the use of computers in engineering and is accompanied by an honorarium.
Elected Fellow of the ASME, August 2013, Michopoulos is an active member of CIE. He has served on the CIE Executive Committee from 2008-2013, was Chair of the Advanced Modeling and Simulation (AMS) Technical committee 2004-2007, and was Vice Chair of that same committee from 2002-2004. He has additionally chaired the 2011 CIE conference and has co-chaired the 2012 CIE conference, organizing numerous workshops and sessions.
Beyond ASME, Michopoulos' work has relayed an aggregate of more than 260 authored and co-authored publications and books and eight patents to the engineering community. Additionally, he has been honored with numerous performance and leadership awards, to include most recently, the P.S Theocaris Award from the National Academy of Athens in 2013 and the 2014 Wolfram Innovator award from Wolfram Research, Inc.
Head of the Computational Multiphysics Systems Laboratory at NRL, Michopoulos has earned international acclaim and reputation for research and leadership on many multidisciplinary areas of engineering science and technology. His pioneering work and innovative leadership has resulted in the development of the first autonomous recursive six degrees of freedom (6-DoF) robotic testing system. Designed for the data driven constitutive characterization of anisotropic materials, the robotic material loader recently achieved the highest industrial rates of fully automated multiaxial testing functionality.
A graduate from National Technical University of Athens, Greece, Michopoulos received a doctorate in theoretical and applied mechanics completing defense of his Ph.D. thesis, Closed Form Solutions of Plane Crack Problems in Isotropic and Anisotropic Elasticity, June 1983. His supervisor was Academy of Athens president professor P.S. Theocaris — namesake of the Academy's highest honor.
As a postdoctoral researcher working on the multiphysics of electromagnetic hygrothermoelasticity and fracture mechanics under the direction of professor G.C. Sih, at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., Michopoulos also served as an adjunct professor at both Lehigh University and Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., demonstrating his dedication to the value of education in engineering and science. Michopoulos continues his dedication to education at NRL as a mentor to many Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP) students and summer faculty.