Morton E. Gurtin is the Alumni Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University. His research concerns nonlinear continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, with recent emphasis on applications to problems in materials science. Among his many awards are the 2004 Timoshenko Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) "in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of applied mechanics" ; the Agostinelli Prize (an annual prize in pure and applied mathematics and mathematical physics) ; Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy ; Dottore Honoris Causa, Civil Engineering, University of Rome ; Distinguished Graduate School Alumnus Award, Brown University ; and the Richard Moore Education Award, Carnegie Mellon University.
In addition to his numerous archival research publications, Professor Gurtin is the author of Configurational Forces as Basic Concepts in Continuum Physics, An Introduction to Continuum Mechanics, Thermomechanics of Evolving Phase Boundaries in the Plane, Topics in Finite Elasticity, The Linear Theory of Elasticity, Handbuch der Physik, Volume VIa/2, and Wave Propagation in Dissipative Materials (with B.
D. Coleman, I. Herrera, and C. Truesdell). Eliot Fried is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University, where he holds the Tier I Canada Research Chair in Interfacial and Defect Mechanics. His research focuses on the mechanics and thermodynamics of novel materials, including liquid crystals, surfactant solutions, hydrogels, granular materials, biovesicles, and nanocrystalline alloys.
He is the recipient of an NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and an NSF Research Initiation Award. Prior to joining McGill, he held tenured faculty positions in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Structural Engineering at Washington University in St.
Louis. At Illinois, he was a Fellow of the Center of Advanced Study and was awarded a Critical Research Initiative Grant. His current research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Health, the Natural Sciences and En- gineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Tallit Anand is the Rohsenow Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
He has had more than twenty-five years of experience conducting research and teaching at MIT, as well as substantial research experience in industry. In 1975 he began his career as a Research Scientist in the Mechanical Sciences Division of the Fundamental Research Laboratory of U.S. Steel Corporation, and he joined the MIT faculty in 1982. His research concerns continuum mechanics of solids, with focus on inelastic deformation and failure of engineering materials.
In 1992, Anand was awarded the Eric Reissner Medal for "outstanding contributions to the field of mechanics of materials" from the International Society for Computational Engineering Science. In 2007 he received the Khan International Medal for `outstanding lifelong contributions to the field of plasticity" from the International Journal of Plasticity. He is also a Fellow of the ASME.