U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) research scientist, Dr. John Michopoulos, is awarded the 2013 P.S. Theocaris Award of the Academy of Athens for outstanding research work entitled Direct strain tensor approximation for full-field strain measurement methods, published July 2013 in the International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering.
The award represents the highest honor bestowed by the Academy of Athens and by implication by the nation of the Hellenic Republic to the respective recipients who are innovating in the area of mechanics of materials, says Professor Antonios N. Kounadis, Full Member of the Academy of Athens and Chair of the P.S. Theocaris award selection committee.
The P.S. Theocaris award is conferred upon candidates identified by the First Class of Exact Sciences of the Academy of Athens. The award is endowed for the Academy by the P.S. Theocaris Public Benefit Foundation, and is accompanied by a monetary amount of 5000 Euros. The intention of the award is to draw distinction to researchers and scholars for the best scientific publication in the technical area of mechanics of materials, with an emphasis on fracture mechanics, experimental strength of materials, and mechanics of polymers.
We congratulate Dr. Michopoulos on this high international honor from Greece, said Dr. Peter Matic, superintendent, NRL Materials Science and Technology Division. This award represents an important reminder of how far-and-wide the work of Dr. Michopoulos is seen, and how its value is recognized by scholarly organizations.
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.
Michopoulos' multidisciplinary and significant contributions extend to forward and inverse approaches of multiphysics modeling and simulation methods and algorithms and computational tools on high performance computing architectures, as they relate to areas such as electromagnetic launcher systems, data-driven environments for multiphysics applications, artificial muscle smart materials, electromagnetic propulsion, sensor networks for structural and environment monitoring, optical methods for displacement and strain measurement, failure theories, coupled electro-magneto and hygrothermoelastic theories of continua, electromagnetic discharge imaging, catastrophe theory applications, and many others.
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 award namesake professor P.S. Theocaris.
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.