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Promoting education, research, and industrial practice
Open Call: GACM Best PhD Award 2023
We are pleased to announce the open call for the GACM Award for the Best Ph.D. Thesis 2023! As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in computational mechanics in Germany. Please consider nominating excellent young researchers for this award or encourage them to apply. A candidate automatically enters the selection procedure for the upcoming ECCOMAS Best Ph.D. award (» https://www.eccomas.org/awards/phd-awards/). Thus, a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards!
What is new is that the winner of the 2024 GACM award will be asked to produce a video in which they present their dissertation on the GACM YouTube channel. With this initiative, we want to make cutting-edge research accessible to a wider audience and inspire students and young scientists to get involved in our community.
Send the applications (including a copy of the thesis which resulted in a successful Ph.D. defense in 2023, a Curriculum Vitae, as well as a recommendation letter (one page)) to GACM (mailto:gacm@gacm.de) by January 31, 2024!
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
GACM Best Poster Awards 2023
At the GACM Colloquium 2023, the best posters were selected by a committee of Senior and Young Scientists and awarded by GACM. These are the winners:
- Annika Schmidt (RWTH Aachen University) - "Modeling of polycrystalline materials using a two-scale FE-FFT-based simulation approach"
- Erik Faust (RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau) - "A nonlinear reduced order modelling approach to solid mechanics with application to representative volume elements"
- Sonja Hellebrand (University of Duisburg-Essen) - "On the numerical analysis of macro- and microscopic residual stresses in 3D"
The pdfs of the awarded posters are available on the right. Congratulations to all three winners!
17th World Congress on Computational Mechanics and ECCOMAS Congress 2026
We are happy to announce that the 17th World Congress on Computational Mechanics and ECCOMAS Congress 2026 will be held in Munich in July 2026. As announced during the Coupled Problems 2023 conference in Crete, a proposal by four chairmen Wolfgang Wall, Alexander Popp, Marek Behr and Ekkehard Ramm from the our community has been selected from among the competing bids.
This is a remarkable achievement for the German computational mechanics community represented by the German Association in Computational Mechanics (GACM) and the Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM), and a true honor to be entrusted with hosting such a significant event. With this success comes a significant responsibility, and the entire community stands united in supporting the organizing team to ensure the success of this prestigious event.
The selection of Munich as the host city further solidifies Germany's position as a hub for cutting-edge research and innovation. Known for its rich academic heritage and technological advancements, Munich is the perfect backdrop for this global gathering of computational mechanics experts. By combining a rich cultural experience, Bavarian hospitality, a strategic location, and a vibrant lifestyle, attending the conference in Munich promises not only exceptional academic and networking opportunities but also a memorable and rewarding experience both inside and outside the conference venue.
Please save the date and plan on joining us in Munich for the World Congress on Computational Mechanics 2026! This will be an unparalleled opportunity to exchange ideas, present groundbreaking research, and forge new collaborations with the brightest minds in the field. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting event!
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
GACM Best PhD Award 2022
In 2012, GACM has successfully established an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award. We are very pleased that the outstanding doctoral thesis of Dr.-Ing. Ivo Steinbrecher is honored with the GACM Best Phd Award 2022. His dissertation "Mixed-Dimensional Finite Element Formulations for Beam-to-Solid Interaction" was written at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich under the scientific supervision of Prof. Alexander Popp. The official award ceremony will take place during the next GACM colloquium in Vienna.
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
GACM Movie
Exciting news! The GACM movie is finally ready! The film highlights all the significant facets of computational engineering. It is not only meant to showcase the work in this exciting field at the intersection of engineering, mathematics, and computer science. It is especially meant to get excited about our shared passion those future talents who may not have encountered it before.
If you like the movie, please help expand its reach. Like or comment on the video and related posts to increase its weight in the algorithms. Link to the film in other social media channels. And feel free to link to the video on YouTube in your own channels. This way, we can bring the field's appeal to a broader audience and expand our community with great new members!
For the outstanding film, we would like to thank all participants, especially Thomas Münz, Wolfgang Wall, Linda Gesenhues, Michael Kaliske, and Gerrit Neu for their willingness to participate, to give an insight into their work and for performing in front of the camera. Also to Günther Meschke and Melanie Breyer at RUB and Sigrid Leyendecker at FAU for the excellent organization of this elaborate project. Big thanks to the film team of FarbFilmFreun.de for the superb work behind the camera and in post-production!
Now enjoy: https://youtu.be/Y9KKbB-gRWs !
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
Open Call: GACM Best PhD Award 2022
We are pleased to announce the open call for the "GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany 2022"! As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Please, nominate excellent young researchers with their thesis for this award or encourage them to apply. Through an application for the GACM Best PhD Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the upcoming ECCOMAS Best PhD award (https://www.eccomas.org/awards/phd-awards/). Thus, a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards!
Please send the applications (including a copy of the thesis (with date of successful PhD denfense at a German university in 2022), a Curriculum Vitae as well as a recommendation letter (one page)) electronically to GACM (gacm@gacm.de) before January 31, 2023!
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
GACM Colloquium 2023 in Vienna
Dear Colleagues,
We invite you to submit a proposal for organizing a Minisymposium at the 10th GACM Colloquium on Computational Mechanics for Young Scientists from Academia and Industry. The conference is part of series of events organized by the German Association for Computational Mechanics (GACM). This time, the motto of the conference will be “GACM meets sustainability” and it will take place in Vienna at TU Wien on September 10–13, 2023.
Each Minisymposium should consist of at least 6 presentations on a topic of current importance in computational mechanics. The organizers of a Minisymposium as well as affiliated researchers are welcome to contribute to the very same Minisymposium. The advertisement of the Minisymposium and the chairs of the respective sessions during the conference are the responsibility of the organizers. Therefore, one researcher cannot organize multiple Minisymposia.
An overview of the Minisymposia previously organized at the 9th GACM colloquium is available here: https://colloquia.gacm.de/2022/program/minisymposia
Proposals to organize a Minisymposium should include the following information:
- The title of the Minisymposium
- The names and affiliations of the organizers and the e-mail address of the corresponding organizer
- A short description of the topic of the Minisymposium (not exceeding 300 words) and a list of related keywords
A template that has to be used can be found here. Please submit your proposal as one pdf-file to gacm2023@tuwien.ac.at no later than December 20, 2022.
We really hope that you will contribute a proposal for a Minisymposium and look forward to meeting you in Vienna.
The GACM 2023 chair persons
Fabian Key (TU Wien), Marco De Paoli (TU Wien), Antonia Wagner (TU Wien), Katrin Mang (Leibiniz University Hannover), Merten Stender (TU Hamburg)
GACM Best Poster Awards 2022
At the GACM Colloquium 2022, the best posters were selected by a committee of Senior and Young Scientists and awarded by GACM. These are the winners:
1st Prize
Jan-Philipp Fürstenau (CADFEM Germany GmbH) - "Enabling Industrially Relevant DEM-SPH Simulations With Rocky"
2nd Prize
Julian Lißner ( University of Stuttgart) - "Microstructure property linkage via Bayesian and convolutional neural networks"
3rd Prize
Sonja Hellebrand (University of Duisburg-Essen) - "A multiscale approach to investigate residual stresses due to targeted cooling of hot bulk formed parts"
The pdfs of the awarded posters are available on the right. Congratulations to all three winners!
GACM Best PhD Awards 2019, 2020 and 2021
After three years, the GACM Best Phd Awards for 2019, 2020, and 2021 were finally granted at the GACM Colloquium 2022 in Essen, Germany! All award winners presented an inspiring insight into their research at the colloquium. After the individual presentations, Marek Behr did the honors. The following awardees were awarded for their outstanding research results:
GACM Best Ph.D. Award 2019 (two winners)
Tobias Kaiser - Computational Modelling of Non-Simple and Anisotropic Materials“ - Technische Universität Dortmund.
and
Bettina Schröder - “Consistent Higher Order Accurate Time Discretization Methods for Inelastic Material Models“ - Universität Kassel.
GACM Best Ph.D. Award 2020
Maximilian Grill - “Computational Models and Methods for Molecular Interactions of Deformable Fibers in Complex Biophysical Systems“ - Technische Universität München.
GACM Best Ph.D. Award 2021
Dr.-Ing. Tobias Bode - “Peridynamic Galerkin methods for nonlinear solid mechanics“ - Leibniz Universität Hannover.
We congratulate all winners and wish them all the best for the future.
GACM Colloquium 2022
A successful 9th GACM Colloquium on Computational Mechanics for Young Scientists from Academia and Industry took place from September 21 to 23, 2022 in Essen, Germany. On Friday, September 21, the conference started with the motivating opening by GACM president Marek Behr and the kind welcome of the Universität Duisburg-Essen by Jörg Schröder. Afterwards all participants could follow the first scientific talk. Exciting plenary lectures were given by Swantje Bargmann on Core-shell Metamaterials Based on Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces and Otto von Estorff on Computational Methods in Acoustics: Challenges in Theory and Practice. Each plenary talk was followed by impressive presentations of the winners of the Best PhD Award 2019, first Tobias Kaiser on Computational Modelling of Non-simple and Anisotropic Materials, later Bettina Römer on Consistent Higher Order Accurate Time Discretization Methods for Inelastic Material Models. The two contribution sessions with eight tracks in the afternoon already showed an active and innovative community with numerous talents. Looking forward to tomorrow!
Thursday, September 22, started with fascinating plenary lecture by Dr.-Ing. Karl Steeger of CPI VERTEX ANTENNENTECHNIK GmbH on "How Numerical Methods Support the Development of Antennas". After his talk the winner of the GACM Best PhD Award 2020, Maximilian Grill presented his remarkable work on "Computational Models and Methods for Molecular Interactions of Deformable Fibers in Complex Biophysical Systems". The morning was closed by another exciting plenary lecture on "Multiscale Modeling Of Materials With Microstructure -- From Smart And Soft To Light And Stiff" by Marc-André Keip. In the afternoon, very lively discussions were held during the poster session. The winners of the awards will be presented later. The scientific part of the day was again concluded by a contributed session, with many talks covering the whole spectrum of computational mechanics.
After enjoying a delicious dinner in a great atmosphere on Thursday evening, the scientific program on Friday, September 23, was again very inspiring. The day started with a seven-track contributed session before the final plenary talk was given by Laura De Lorenzis on "EUCLID: Efficient Unsupervised Constitutive Law Identification and Discovery." Like all previous plenaries, this one was very exciting. After lunch, the winner of the Best PhD Award 2021, Tobias Bode, gave an impressive talk on "Peridynamic Galerkin Methods For Nonlinear Solid Mechanics". The research program was concluded by a final contribution session with five tracks in the afternoon. During the closing session, Marek Behr summarized the success of the event with some statistics and announced that the 10th GACM Colloquium, celebrating the 30th anniversary of German Association for Computational Mechanics , will take place in Vienna!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all people involved in the conference. First of all, thanks to everyone who actively contributed to this conference by organizing a mini-symposium, giving a talk or creating a poster! This is the only way a conference can ever be a success. Then we would like to thank the countless people in the background. Without your work, such a conference cannot be held. Finally, special thanks to the organizers of the event: Dominik Brands, Hauke Gravenkamp, Richard Ostwald, Lisa Scheunemann, Alexander Schwarz und Carina Schwarz! This has been a fantastic conference in a professional environment with a pleasant atmosphere! You did great job!
Good bye GACM 2022 in Duisburg-Essen, see you all on GACM 2023 next year in Vienna!
GACM presents: SFB/TRR 339 – Digital Twin of the Road System
Physical-Informational Representation of the Future Road System
The mobility of people and goods is a central basis of our modern society with increasingly global and diverse networked processes. In its present form, mobility, especially with regard to road traffic, is currently confronted with global challenges (durability, safety, efficiency, ecology, costs, automation etc.) that urgently require fundamental solutions.
In the SFB/TRR 339 (TU Dresden, RWTH Aachen, speaker: Prof. Michael Kaliske, Insitute for Structural Analysis, TU Dresden), a spatially and temporally multi-dimensional, digital/virtual image (reality model in space and time) of vehicle, tires and road surface (concrete and asphalt) taking into account the road pavements (integrated multi-functionality) will be developed and researched. The reality model combines all available and relevant information about the "Road of the Future" from physical investigations and modeling as well as from informational and traffic data (sensor data, data models etc.). It enables and requires the interaction between the physical- structural and the informational-traffic design level. This interactive reality model in space and time is called the digital twin of the road system and is used in perspective to analyze, control and forecast the physical original (real road system consisting of vehicle, tires, lane, nearby street space) by means of common interfaces. The advancement of the road to a high-tech platform will be developed using the new, interdisciplinary research approach (civil engineering, computer science, society).
The research approach is based on a three-stage development strategy:
In Phase I, the required submodels are designed and developed. In Phase II, the partial models are combined using common, standardized interfaces and integrated into a holistic model of the road system (digital shadow), which in Phase III will allow the analysis and control of the road system with its own control components (digital twin).
The aim is to achieve the vehicle's present high level of development in a similar way for the road system, so that a new quality of integration of vehicles and infrastructure can be achieved. The overriding aspects of law and sustainability shall be explicitly included into the conception and development of the digital twin of the road system from the beginning on. The digital twin of the road system will lead to an intelligent, gentle and sustainable use of the road infrastructure. Other expected results are groundbreaking condition forecasts, interfaces to local traffic control, the optimal synthesis of building materials and structures, interfaces to automated driving and the reduction of emissions, e.g. by minimizing traffic jams or durable road infrastructure components (use of resources).
Further information: https://tu-dresden.de/bu/bauingenieurwesen/sdt/forschung/sfb-339digitaler-zwilling-strasse
GACM presents: DFG SPP 2311 - Robustly coupling continuum-biomechanical in silico models to obtain active biological system models for later use in clinical applications
Co-design of modeling, numerics and usability
The enormous potential of in silico (computer-aided) models is still little utilized in medicine. As in other high-tech fields, this potential could be exploited more intensively to accelerate the development of modern diagnostic and individualized treatment methods. Most existing in silico models are limited to single scales (e.g. cell, tissue) or to generic multi-scale models of single organs (e.g. muscle, liver). However, to understand symptoms and disease, multiple scales of size and time must be considered in the context of the entire system. The complex cross-scale relationships are often very difficult to identify without a systematic approach and computational models. Therefore, a central task of numerical biomechanics and biomedical research is to develop robust coupling methods and strategies. These must integrate the scales of biological systems from the molecule to the complete organ system or organism.
In order to promote this emerging research field, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved a new Priority Programme (SPP2311) on the “Robust Coupling of Continuum-biomechanical In Silico Models to Establish Active Biological System Models for Later Use in Clinical Applications – Co-design of Modelling, Numerics and Usability”. The programme consists of 11 research projects, each of which being a collaborative effort of interdisciplinary, Germany-wide research groups from medicine, mathematics, computer science and engineering. The programme is coordinated by Prof. Oliver Röhrle, PhD, Director of the Institute for Modelling and Simulation of Biomechanical Systems at the University of Stuttgart.
The overall aim of the SPP is to further existing methodologies to achieve a new generation of robust biomechanical models that ultimately can be used in clinical practice. In that sense, the SPP aims to develop the enabling methodologies to build new complex models for clinical applications, but does not aim to transfer these new models to clinics via clinical studies, yet. Thus, the SPP understands itself as a methodically oriented programme focusing on computational biomechanical models of active systems for medical questions.
The SPP is divided into three closely interrelated areas. The area "Modeling of coupled biomechanical systems" deals with the coupling of biomechanical in silico models for the description of active biological systems on different length, time and/or function scales or with the coupling of continuum biomechanical organ system models. The area "Numerics of coupled biomechanical systems" focuses on mathematical algorithms for robust, numerical solution of coupled models for active biological systems as well as their implementation on workstations and supercomputers. And finally, the area "Usability" deals with data exchange, validation and preparation of numerical continuum biomechanical models for answering clinically relevant questions and for person-specific solutions.
Further information: https://www.spp2311.de/
GACM Best PhD Award 2021
In 2012, GACM has successfully established an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award. It is our great pleasure to announce that the outstanding doctoral thesis of Dr.-Ing. Tobias Bode is honored with this award for the year 2021. His thesis "Peridynamic Galerkin methods for nonlinear solid mechanics" was conducted at Leibniz University Hannover and has been performed under the academic supervision of Prof. Peter Wriggers. The award will be officially confered at the next GACM Colloquium in Essen.
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
GACM presents: PERMAS for Education by INTES GmbH
PERMAS for Education
The GACM corporate member INTES GmbH implements PERMAS as one of the worldwide leading Finite Elemente software systems for the solution of complex analysis tasks in research and industry. PERMAS covers a wide spectrum of application areas like static analysis, dynamics, temperature fields and fluid-structure acoustics.The software PERMAS4EDU is free-of-charge for education and further training, no commercial use permitted.
Many oustanding properties like
• fast solvers,
• exact and fast contact analysis,
• many nonlinearities,
• integrated optimization for topology,
shape, sizing, sampling (DOE),
and reliability analysis,
• Interfaces: VisPER, ANSA, ABAQUS,
NASTRAN, MEDINA, HyperWorks, NX.
PERMAS4EDU contains the complete FE process chain from mesh to evaluation, on Windows and Linux. Limited model sizes, e.g. 16,000 nodes, 32,000 elements, 65,000 degrees of freedom.
How to get the software?
By registration on
As a software developer, INTES is interested in FE developers who are welcome to introduce themselves.
INTES GmbH
Breitwiesenstr. 28
D-70565 Stuttgart
www.intes.de/edu
PERMAS4EDU
GACM presents: SFB 1483 - Empathokinesthetic sensing
Sensing techniques and data analysis methods for empathokinesthetic modeling and state estimation
Developing sensor technology and collecting movement data of the human body is the aim of the new Collaborative Research Center SFB 1483, which has just been approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The new SFB bears the project title “Empatho-Kinaesthetic Sensor Technology” (EmpkinS). His research aims to combine the external observation of body movements, such as movements of the head, torso and limbs, facial expressions or even a slight twitch under the surface of the skin with internal processes using body function models.
The research team headed by Prof. Dr. Martin Vossiek from the Institute of Microwaves and Photonics and Prof. Dr. Björn Eskofier from the Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab wants to achieve this by developing methods and technologies that link information from external movements with internal biomedical processes. The external movements are measured with sensory systems, which are also developed within the CRC. The aim of EmpkinS is to enable the simultaneous detection of several body (dys) functions with non-invasive and in the future easily available sensors. The focus of EmpkinS is on medical issues in immunology, neurology and palliative medicine as well as mental illnesses such as depression and stress.
Further information you can find here: https://empkins.de/
Open Call: GACM Best PhD Award 2021
We are pleased to announce the open call for the "GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany 2021"! As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Please, nominate excellent young researchers with their thesis for this award or encourage them to apply. Through an application for the GACM Best PhD Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the upcoming ECCOMAS Best PhD award (https://www.eccomas.org/awards/phd-awards/). Thus, a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards!
Please send the applications (including a copy of the thesis (with date of successful PhD denfense in 2021), a Curriculum Vitae as well as a recommendation letter (one page)) electronically to GACM (gacm@gacm.de) before January 31, 2022!
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
GACM Best PhD Award 2020
In 2012, GACM has successfully established an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award. It is our great pleasure to announce that the outstanding doctoral thesis of Dr.-Ing. Maximilian Grill is honored with this award for the year 2020. His thesis "Computational Models and Methods for Molecular Interactions of Deformable Fibers in Complex Biophysical Systems" was conducted at Technical University Munich and has been performed under the academic supervision of Prof. Wolfgang A. Wall. The award will be officially confered at the next GACM Colloquium in Essen.
Norbert Hosters, GACM Secretary General
Open Call: GACM Best PhD Award 2020 - Application Deadline Extended!!!
We are pleased to announce the open call for the "GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany 2020"! As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Please, nominate excellent young researchers with their thesis for this award or encourage them to apply. Through an application for the GACM Best PhD Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the upcoming ECCOMAS Best PhD award (https://www.eccomas.org/awards/phd-awards/). Thus, a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards!
Please send the applications (including a copy of the thesis (with date of successful PhD denfense in 2020), a Curriculum Vitae as well as a recommendation letter (one page)) electronically to GACM (gacm@mailbox.tu-dresden.de) before February 1, 2021!
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Oskar Mahrenholtz
With great sadness we inform you about the death of Oskar Mahrenholtz, former President (1989-1992) and Honorary Member of Gesellschaft für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (GAMM) as well as President (1996-2000) of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). Oskar Mahrenholtz passed away on 6th April 2020 at the age of 88. We will always remember him as a great personality in our field.
Michael Kaliske, GACM President
GACM Best PhD Award 2019
In 2012, GACM has successfully established an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award. It is our great pleasure to announce that the two outstanding doctoral theses of Dr.-Ing. Tobias Kaiser as well as of Dr.-Ing. Bettina Schröder are honored with this award for the year 2019. The thesis "Computational modelling of non-simple and anisotropic materials" of Tobias Kaiser was conducted at Technische Universität Dortmund and has been performed under the academic supervision of Prof. Andreas Menzel. The thesis of Bettina Schröder titled "Consistent Higher Order Accurate Time Discretization Methods for Inelastic Material Models" was conducted at University of Kassel and supervised by Prof. Detlef Kuhl. The award will be officially confered at the next GACM Colloquium in Essen (August 2021).
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Roger Owen
With great sadness we have to inform you about the passing of Roger Owen. Professor Owen was an international highly renowned authority in Computational Mechanics. We will always remember him with great respect.
Michael Kaliske, GACM President
Open Call: GACM Best PhD Award 2019 - Application Deadline Extended!!!
We are pleased to announce the open call for the "GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany 2019"! As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Please, nominate excellent young researchers with their thesis for this award or encourage them to apply. Through an application for the GACM Best PhD Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the upcoming ECCOMAS Best PhD award. Thus, a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards!
Please send the applications (including a copy of the thesis (with date of successful PhD denfense in 2019), a Curriculum Vitae as well as a recommendation letter (one page)) electronically to GACM (gacm@mailbox.tu-dresden.de) before January 31, 2020!
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
GACM Best PhD Award 2018
In 2012, GACM has successfully established an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award. It is our great pleasure to announce that the two outstanding doctoral theses of Dr.-Ing. Johanna Waimann as well as of Dr.-Ing. Dominik Budday are honored with this award for the year 2018. The thesis "Variationelle Modellierung irreversibler Effekte in polykristallinen Formgedächtnislegierungen" of Johanna Waimann was conducted at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and has been performed under the academic supervision of Prof. Klaus Hackl. The thesis of Dominik Budday titled "High-Dimensional Robotics at the Nanoscale – Kino-Geometric Modeling of Proteins and Molecular Mechanisms" was conducted at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and supervised by Prof. Sigrid Leyendecker. The award will be officially confered at the next GACM Colloquium in Kassel (August 2019).
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Open Call: Young Investigators Conference 2021
The European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) invites institutions from all over Europe to present proposals for the organization of the 6th Young Investigators Conference (YIC), to be held between April and September, 2021. Further details can be found on http://www.eccomas.org/vpage/1/2/Young-Investigators-Conferences.
Institutions interested in organizing YIC 2021 are kindly requested to submit a proposal to the ECCOMAS Secretariat (eccomas@cimne.upc.edu) before May 15, 2019.
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Erwin Stein, December 19th 2018
With great sadness we have to inform you about the passing of Erwin Stein on December 19th 2018. Professor Stein was an international highly renowned authority in Computational Mechanics. He was Honorary President of GACM and his role in forming our scientific society and scientific community was unique. We will always remember him with great respect.
Michael Kaliske, GACM President
Open Call: GACM Best PhD Award 2018 - Application Deadline Extended!!!
We are pleased to announce the open call for the "GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany 2018"! As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Please, nominate excellent young researchers with their thesis for this award or encourage them to apply. Through an application for the GACM Best PhD Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the upcoming ECCOMAS Best PhD award. Thus, a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards!
Please send the applications (including a copy of the thesis (with date of successful PhD denfense in 2018), a Curriculum Vitae as well as a recommendation letter (one page)) electronically to GACM (gacm@mailbox.tu-dresden.de) before February 1, 2019!
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Euler medal from the European Community for Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) for former GACM President Professor Ekkehard Ramm
On June 11, 2018, during the opening ceremony of the big ECCM-ECFD conference in Glasgow, the former GACM President Professor Ekkehard Ramm received the Euler medal from the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). According to ECCOMAS, the Euler Medal is awarded for outstanding and sustained contributions to the area of computational solid and structural mechanics. These contributions shall generally be in the form of important research results which significantly advance the understanding of mathematical theories and methods impacting the areas of mechanics. The medal carries the image of Euler (1707-1783). The medal is awarded every two years at the ECCOMAS Congress and Conferences, respectively. A list of all ECCOMAS awardees of this year and pictures from the ceremony can be found here.
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Zienkiewicz Award from the European Community for Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) for GACM Member Professor Alexander Popp
On June 11, 2018, during the opening ceremony of the big ECCM-ECFD conference in Glasgow, the GACM Member Professor Alexander Popp received the Olgierd Cecil Zienkiewicz Award from the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). The Zienkiewicz Award is awarded for young scientists outstanding contributions to the field of computational engineering sciences. The medal is awarded every two years at the ECCOMAS Congress and Conferences, respectively. A list of all ECCOMAS awardees of this year and pictures from the ceremony can be found here.
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
ECCOMAS Best PhD Award 2017
It is our great pleasure to announce that Dr. Sylvia Budday (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) is not only the recipient of the GACM Best PhD Award 2017, but her thesis "The role of mechanics during brain development" has also been selected as one of two winning dissertations of the ECCOMAS Award for the Best PhD Theses in Europe 2017. The meeting of the Evaluation Committee for the ECCOMAS Best PhD Award was held on April 6th, 2018 at CIMNE, Barcelona. As an answer to the call for tender, the ECCOMAS member associations nominated 17 theses. The Evaluation Committee was composed by Nils-Erik Wiberg (chairman), Stefanie Reese, Wulf Dettmer, Boniface Nkonga and Pedro Díez (secretary). After a detailed discussion, a voting process was held in two phases. Finally, the committee unanimously agreed on selecting the two winners.
The two winners are
Dr. Silvia Budday (Germany) for the thesis "The role of mechanics during brain development" (nominated by GACM)
Dr. Matthias Faes (Belgium) for the thesis "Interval methods for the identification and quantification of inhomogeneous uncertainty in finite element models"
These theses are outstanding works in Computational Mechanics combining excellent knowledge of both theory and practice, with special insight in the fundamental and computational aspects. 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 and the innovative numerical developments. Moreover, both theses are very well written and meticulously presented.
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
GACM Best PhD Award 2017
In 2012, GACM has successfully established an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award. It is our great pleasure to announce that the outstanding doctoral theses of Dr.-Ing. Sylvia Budday is honored with this award for the year 2017. Her thesis "The role of mechanics during brain development" was conducted at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and has been performed under the academic supervision of Prof. Paul Steinmann. The award will be officially confered at the next GACM Colloquium in Kassel (August 2019).
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Open Call: GACM Best PhD Award 2017
We are pleased to announce the open call for the "GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany 2017"! As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Please, nominate excellent young researchers with their thesis for this award or encourage them to apply. Through an application for the GACM Best PhD Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the upcoming ECCOMAS Best PhD award. Thus, a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards!
Please send the applications (including a copy of the thesis as well as a Curriculum Vitae) electronically to GACM (gacm@mailbox.tu-dresden.de) before January 15, 2018!
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
Open Call: IACM Awards 2018
The International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM) is pleased to announce the Open Call for the IACM Awards 2018, which will be presented at the 13th World Congress on Computational Mechanics (WCCM XIII) in New York, USA, July 22-27, 2018. The Open Call as well as the nomination form are available on the IACM website.
Please note that nominations must be submitted before June 30, 2017, by email to: secretariat@iacm.info
Ines Wollny, GACM Secretary General
!!! Application Deadline Extended !!!: ECCOMAS Award for the Two Best PhD Theses in 2016 and GACM Best PhD Award
The European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) is pleased to announce the new Open Call for the ECCOMAS Award for the Two Best PhD Theses 2016. As in the last years, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Through an application for the ECCOMAS Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the ECCOMAS PhD Olympiad and the GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany, that GACM is awarding since 2012. Please nominate excellent young researchers (e.g. co-workers in your group) with their thesis for this award or encourage them to apply. As you can see from the open call, the nomination/application process is really simple and easy.
Please note that applications should be sent to GACM electronically (gacm@lnm.mw.tum.de) before the extended nomination deadline on January 31, 2017. As mentioned above, nominations/applications for the GACM Best PhD Award go hand in hand with nominations for the ECCOMAS Best PhD Award, i.e. a single nomination/application is sufficient to enter the selection procedure for both awards.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: 4th International Conference on Computational Engineering (ICCE 2017)
The 4th International Conference on Computational Engineering will take place from Thursday, September 28, to Friday, September 29, 2017 at the darmstadtium conference center next to Technische Universität Darmstadt. The conference is organized by the Graduate School of Computational Engineering (GSC CE) at TU Darmstadt together with the International Graduate School of Science and Engineering (IGSSE) at Technical University of Munich, the Stuttgart Research Center for Simulation Technology (SimTech) at University of Stuttgart and the Aachen Institute for Advanced Study in Computational Engineering Science (AICES) at RWTH Aachen University.
The conference provides a meeting place for researchers and practitioners working on computational methods in all disciplines of engineering and applied mathematics, with a special focus on doctoral researchers and young scientists. The aim of the conference is to discuss the state of the art in this challenging field, develop promising perspectives for future research and initiate cooperations.
For more details please visit the conference website: http://www.conference-ce.de/
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
In mourning for Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Miehe (1956-2016)
It is with greatest sadness that we have to inform the GACM community of the much too early passing of Prof. Christian Miehe. The whole GACM is grieving for one of the international leader in our field, a long time member of GACM and a personal and close friend to many of us. We have asked some of his closest colleagues and friends for some words on this tragic loss.
Wolfgang A. Wall, GACM President
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With deep regret and great sadness we learned that Professor Christian Miehe passed away after a serious illness on 14 August 2016 at the age of 60. For more than 20 years he held the chair for Applied Mechanics and Material Theory at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Stuttgart. He was also the chairman of the master program “Computational Mechanics of Materials and Structures (COMMAS)”; he has substantially contributed to its great success.
Christian Miehe was a worldwide leading figure in computational mechanics. His exceptional scientific achievements in solid mechanics and in particular in modeling of heterogeneous materials were characterized by an amazing breadth and impressive depth. He established general concepts for the analysis of material behavior representing the complex microstructure and its evolution on several scales, also in multi-physics environments. They include advanced homogenization and multi-scale techniques with many novel features, using for example mathematically rigorous minimization principles. His recent works on phase field models were milestones opening a new door for modeling solids at fracture.
Christian was also a dedicated educator and highly esteemed mentor to his PhD students. A strong indication for the quality of his supervision are the many excellent, frequently cited papers in high rank journals. He was a regular participant and often invited plenary speaker on international conferences, among them ECCOMAS Congresses, ECCM and Thematic Conferences, e.g. COMPLAS.
Most of all, Christian was a great personality and for many of us a wonderful friend. His passing is truly a great loss to the world of computational mechanics and leaves a vacuum in our community.
Ekkehard Ramm, Honorary President of GACM and ECCOMAS President
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It is with great sadness that we inform you of the early passing of Christian Miehe after a valiant battle with cancer. Christian was an internationally renowned expert in computational mechanics. He began his career in the well-known mechanics program at the University of Hannover, receiving his Diploma, PhD, and Habilitation there. In between, he spent two very fruitful years at Stanford University as a research fellow of the German Science Foundation (DFG). In 1995 he was called to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Stuttgart to lead the chair for Mechanics and Material Theory at the Institute of Applied Mechanics, where he was also active as one of its directors. Over the past two decades in Stuttgart, he led one of the most successful and respected groups in material modeling and numerical methods. This included deep involvement in the creation of the well-respected COMMAS (Computational Mechanics of Materials and Structures) masters program.
Christian was easily counted amongst the world's top researchers in computational mechanics. He has drastically influenced our community over the past 25 years with his penetrating ideas and perfectly crafted publications, whose reading always brought joy and new insights to the readers. Christian's phenomenal expertise in computational mechanics was based on his deep knowledge of mechanics and his constant reflection on the important role that mathematics plays in the general treatment of problem solution. His papers are noted for a sharp attention to mathematical structure, its exploitation for the development of theory, and its leveraging for sound computation. The bulk of his over 100 archival papers revolved around material modeling with noteworthy work in an amazing breadth of sub-topics:
non-linear continuum physics, applied differential geometry and constitutive theory of materials;
computational mechanics, discretization techniques, finite element design and solution algorithms;
variational principles for dissipative problems in solid mechanics, including multi-physics scenarios;
phenomenological material theory, elasticity, viscoelasticity, plasticity, damage and fracture mechanics;
micro-mechanics of materials, phase transitions, defect theories, general configurational mechanics;
homogenization techniques and scale bridging, top-down modeling of materials with microstructures;
coupled multi-field problems, thermo-, electro-, magneto-, chemo-mechanical coupling;
material stability analyses, relaxation techniques, bifurcation analysis;
structural models, shell theories, finite elements for solid structures in multi-field environments;
optimization methods, parameter identification of complex material models, and experimental mechanics.
Christian devoted an impressive intensity and infectious love for these topics that can be evidenced by the accomplishments of his many students. Christian was the personification of the perfect scholar and a beloved mentor to young scholars, a person who devoted his life and personality to advance and promote computational mechanics and material theory: A great loss for the international community.
Christian was also internationally active and well known for being the consummate host. He organized conferences and workshops and was a distinct member serving on several editorial boards and organizations. Conferences and workshops hosted by him were well attended by guests who departed with nothing but fond memories. Visitors to the Institute cherished their time there and he was always a sought-out friend at meetings around the world. Christian was a fine downhill skier, lover of sweet desserts, and special person to be around.
His early death leaves a deep void in the hearts of many, but most tragically for his wife and life partner Elke and their two sons Robert and Paul.
Sanjay Govindjee, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Jörg Schröder, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Christian Linder, Stanford University, USA
Open Call: Heinz Maier Leibnitz Award of the DFG
As every year, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) awards the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Award for young investigators. Excellent young researchers working in the fields of interest of GACM are strongly encouraged to apply. As a first step, only the CV and a list of publications shall be sent to the responsible DFG review board members Prof. Günther Meschke, Prof. Manfred Bischoff and Prof. Wolfgang Ehlers (deadline: August 20, 2016) . After this first stage, three promising candidates will be selected and the complete application material must be uploaded to the DFG ELAN web-portal (deadline: August 27, 2016).
Wolfgang A. Wall, GACM President
Two GACM members elected as new chairpersons of the ECCOMAS Young Investigators Committee
At the 7th European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineeering (ECCOMAS Congress 2016) in Crete, GACM Secretary General Dr. Alexander Popp (TU Munich) was elected as new chairman of the ECCOMAS Young Investigators Committee (EYIC). Together with another GACM member, Dr. Stefanie Elgeti (RWTH Aachen) as co-chairperson, he will lead the committee that has been created in order to promote the main goals of ECCOMAS among young researchers and to encourage activities of young ECCOMAS members. With the number of young investigators working on computational methods in applied sciences and engineering significantly increasing over the last years, the EYIC has become a very important and dedicated coalition of young researchers across Europe. The EYIC is composed of currently 21 members representing the different national and regional associations within ECCOMAS and has a term of four years.
Wolfgang A. Wall, GACM President
Prandtl medal from the European Community for Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) for GACM President Professor Wolfgang A. Wall
On June 6, 2016, during the opening ceremony of the big ECCOMAS congress in Crete, GACM President Professor Wolfgang A. Wall received the Prandtl medal from the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). According to ECCOMAS, the Prandtl Medal is awarded for outstanding and sustained contributions to the area of computational fluid dynamics. These contributions shall generally be in the form of important research results which significantly advance the understanding of theories and methods impacting CFD. The medal carries the image of Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953). The medal is awarded every two years at the ECCOMAS Congress and Conferences, respectively. A list of all ECCOMAS awardees of this year can be found here.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
ECCOMAS Best PhD Award 2015
It is our great pleasure to announce that Dr. Ursula Rasthofer (doctorate at TU München, now ETH Zürich) is not only one of the two recipients of the GACM Best PhD Award 2015, but her thesis "Computational Multiscale Methods for Turbulent Single and Two-Phase Flows" has also been selected as one of two winning dissertations of the ECCOMAS Award for the Best PhD Theses in Europe 2015. The meeting of the Evaluation Committee for the ECCOMAS Best PhD Award was held on April 1st, 2016 at CIMNE, Barcelona. As an answer to the call for tender, the ECCOMAS member associations nominated 17 theses. The Evaluation Committee was composed by Nils-Erik Wiberg (chairman), Claudia Comi, Harald Van Brummelen, Stefan Vandewalle and Pedro Díez (secretary). After a detailed discussion, a voting process was held in two phases. Finally, the committee unanimously agreed on selecting the two winners.
The two winners are
Dr. Ursula Rasthofer (Germany) for the thesis "Computational Multiscale Methods for Turbulent Single and Two-Phase Flows"
Dr. Frederico Negri (Switzerland) for the thesis "Efficient Reduction Techniques for the Simulation and Optimization of Parameterized Systems: Analysis and Applications"
These theses are outstanding works in Computational Mechanics combining excellent knowledge of both theory and practice, with special insight in the implementation and computational aspects. The award decision was based on the originality of the theses, their scientific content and the innovative numerical developments.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
GACM Best PhD Award 2015
In 2012, GACM has successfully established an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award. It is our great pleasure to announce that not only one but two outstanding doctoral theses will be honored with this award for the year 2015. The awardees are Dr.-Ing. Ursula Rasthofer for her thesis "Computational Multiscale Methods for Turbulent Single and Two-Phase Flows" and Dr-Ing. Richard Ostwald for his thesis "Modelling and Simulation of Phase-Transformations in Elasto-Plastic Polycrystals". The PhD work of Dr. Rasthofer led to a doctoral degree from TU München and has been performed under the academic supervision of Dr. Volker Gravemeier. Dr. Ostwald conducted his PhD work at TU Dortmund under the academic supervision of Prof. Andreas Menzel. The two awards will be officially confered at the next GACM Colloquium in Stuttgart (October 2017).
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: Fifth European Trilinos User Group Meeting (EuroTUG 2016)
We would like to draw your attention to the 5th European Trilinos User Group Meeting (EuroTUG2016) that will take place April 18-20, 2016 in Garching near Munich at the Leibniz Rechenzentrum (LRZ) and is jointly hosted by LRZ and TU Munich this year.
EuroTUG is an annual meeting that brings together researchers, developers and users of the open source scientific software collection ’Trilinos’ from Sandia National Laboratories, USA. The meeting is designed as a platform for discussions and information on latest trends in HPC scientific software, massively parallel computing, efficient algorithms and HPC enabling technologies, with a special emphasis on usage of the Trilinos software suit in this context. EuroTUG will supply an overview of the Trilinos software suit as well as beginners and advanced tutorials. One of this year’s focuses is on usage of Trilinos-Kokkos, a programming model for performance portable applications targeting all major platforms including Nvidia, Xeon Phi and manycore complex hardware node architectures.
EuroTUG program committee:
- Mike Heroux, Sandia National Laboratories
- Peter Arbenz, ETH Zurich
- Christophe Calvin, CEA Saclay
- Simone Deparis, EPFL Lausanne
- Michael W. Gee, TU Munich
- Momme Allalen, Matthias Brehm, LRZ Garching
Registration information and all details can be found at the meeting website. There are still slots for contributed presentations, so if you are interested in presenting your Trilinos-related work, please indicate so in the registration process or email to eurotug2016@mhpc.mw.tum.de.
On behalf of the program committee,
Michael W. Gee, Technical University of Munich
Announcement: CISM Course on Computational Contact and Interface Mechanics
As part of the 2016 Alexandre Favre Session, a CISM Advanced Course on Computational Contact and Interface Mechanics will take place October 3, 2016 - October 7, 2016 in Udine, Italy. The summer school is organized by the two GACM members Alexander Popp (Technical University of Munich) and Peter Wriggers (Leibniz University of Hannover) and a flyer with detailed information is available here.
For more information on this course, please see http://www.cism.it/courses/C1612/. For further CISM courses in 2016, see http://www.cism.it/courses.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: CISM-ECCOMAS International Summer School on Computational Fluid-Structure Interaction
ECCOMAS is happy to announce this summer school - fruit of the cooperation between ECCOMAS and the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM) - which will take place June 27, 2016 - July 1, 2016 in Udine, Italy. The summer school flyer with detailed information is available here.
For more information on this course, please see http://www.cism.it/courses/C1606/. For further CISM courses in 2016, see http://www.cism.it/courses.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: USACM Conference on Isogeometric Analysis and Meshfree Methods
The USACM Thematic Conference on Isogeometric Analysis and Meshfree Methods (IGA-Meshfree 2016) will be held in La Jolla, California, October 10-12, 2016 at the Estanica La Jolla Hotel and Spa. Abstract submissions is now open. For more information about this event, please visit the conference website at http://iga-mf.usacm.org/.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Open Call: ECCOMAS Award for the Two Best PhD Theses in 2015 and GACM Best PhD Award
The European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) is pleased to announce the Open Call for the ECCOMAS Award for the Two Best PhD Theses 2015. As in the lasts year, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Through an application for the ECCOMAS Award, a candidate automatically also enters the selection procedure for the ECCOMAS PhD Olympiad and the GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany.
Please note that GACM has decided to extend the official nomination deadline to February 13, 2016.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: Young Investigators Minisymposium at the ECCOMAS Congress, June 5-10, 2016, Crete, Greece
The Young Investigators Committee (YIC) of ECCOMAS is proud to announce the Young Investigators Minisymposium that will take place within the ECCCOMAS Congress 2016 in Crete / Greece on June 5-10, 2016. This minisymposium is specifically organized by young researchers (all of which are members of the ECCOMAS Young Investigators Committee) for young researchers, and the format will be slightly different from the regular sessions to particularly attract young researchers. While the primary focus group are researchers younger than 40 years, of course we also warmly welcome senior scientists.
All details on the proposed format and on the prerequisites for participating can be found in the invitation letter (click here or on the image). Especially important is the following: since the format of this minisymposium is different from the regular ones, authors are allowed to have a presentation in this minisymposium in addition to a regular one in any other session.
The deadline for abstract submission is November 29, 2015!
Jaan-Willem Simon (GAMM, Germany), Alexander Popp (GACM, Germany),
Mahmood Jabareen (IACMM, Israel), Joan Baiges (SEMNI, Spain)
Announcement: Special Workshop on Multiscale Modeling of Heterogeneous Structures, September 21-23, 2016, Dubrovnik, Croatia
We would like to address your attention to the Special Workshop on Multiscale Modeling of Heterogeneous Structures, which will take place in Dubrovnik / Croatia on September 21-23, 2016. In particular, young researchers are encouraged to present results of their scientific work. Presentations of work in progress are also welcome. Feel free to inform your research partners about this special event organized by O. Allix (ENS Cachan), J. Soric (University of Zagreb) and P. Wriggers (Leibniz Universität Hannover).
Please have a look at the workshop flyer (right) for further information.
All relevant information can also be found on the workshop webpage at:
https://www.fsb.unizg.hr/mechanics/chair_mechanics
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
GACM Colloquium on Computational Mechanics and ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference (YIC GACM 2015) in Aachen a great success
The GACM Colloquium on Computational Mechanics and ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference YIC GACM 2015 held in Aachen during July 20-24, 2015, has been a resounding success. More than 280 young scientists under the age of 35 from Europe and other parts of the world took part in minisymposia, parallel sessions, and attended plenary lectures, including those offered as a part of the concurrently held 3rd Aachen Conference on Computational Engineering Science. Innovative elements, such as Science Slam and the Journal Club, were a popular part of the program. The conference was chaired by Dr. Stefanie Elgeti (Chair for Computational Analysis of Technical Systems - CATS) and by Dr. Jaan-Willem Simon (Institute of Applied Mechanics - IFAM), supported by a local organizing committee. The ECCOMAS YIC Conference is an initiative of the ECCOMAS Young Investigators Committee.
Alongside the scientific program, the conference included a talk "Science of the Big Bang" by Dr. Mayim Bialik, better known as Amy Farrah Fowler on the hit TV series The Big Bang Theory. Next to her career as an actress and a neuroscientist, Ms. Bialik is an advocate for encouraging high school students to enter STEM-related fields. The visit, her first to Germany, was negotiated by the conference co-chair Dr. Elgeti, and generated national coverage by the Hamburger Abendblatt, Berliner Tagesspiegel, Kölner Express, Kölner Stadtanzeiger, and even Bild. The news item on the RWTH Aachen University Facebook page received over 20 thousand "likes" and more than thousand comments in just 24 hours.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: New GACM Report
Just in time for the 6th GACM Colloquium on Computational Mechanics (which is held in conjunction with the 3rd ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference at RWTH Aachen University on July 20-23, 2015), GACM is very happy to present the new issue of our regular news bulletin GACM Report.
The current issue No. 9 has been edited by our executive council member Thomas Münz (Dynamore GmbH) and focuses on industrial applications of computational mechanics. On the occasion of the re-launch of the GACM website, we have decided to make also the current issue No. 9 publicly available, while all other issues can accessed and downloaded by logging in to the Members Area.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: New ECCOMAS Newsletter
The European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) has recently published its new online newsletter. GACM, being one of the member organizations of ECCOMAS, is happy to offer this interesting reading to its members.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Open Call: ECCOMAS Award for the Two Best PhD Theses in 2014 and GACM Best PhD Award
The European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS) is pleased to announce the Open Call for the ECCOMAS Award for the Two Best PhD Theses 2014. As last year, the GACM Executive Council would like to emphasize the importance of this call for young researchers in Computational Mechanics in Germany. Through an application for the ECCOMAS Award, a candidate automatically also enter the selection procedure for the ECCOMAS PhD Olympiad and the GACM Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Germany. The deadline for nominations is February 16, 2015.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: 10th International Workshop on Variational Multiscale and Stabilized Finite Elements, February 25-27, 2015, Munich, Germany
We are pleased to announce the 10th International Workshop on Variational Multiscale and Stabilized Finite Elements (VMS2015) to be held on February 25-27, 2015 at the Institute for Computational Mechanics, TUM in Garching / Germany.
The international workshop series on Variational Multiscale and Stabilized Finite Elements (VMS) was initiated in Göttingen in 2004 for gathering researchers in the field of variational multiscale and stabilized finite element methods to exchange their most recent ideas and research results. Originally developed in the context of flow problems, these computational methods have shown their potential for being successfully applied to a broad variety of problems. The objective of VMS2015 is to be again a forum where the participants are invited to present their latest results in this field of research. Both novel theoretical developments and applications in this context are encouraged to be presented at VMS2015.
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: January 12, 2015
Notification of abstract acceptance: January 23, 2015
Registration deadline: February 2, 2015
More information can be found on the workshop webpage at:
http://www.lnm.mw.tum.de/vms2015
Volker Gravemeier and Wolfgang A. Wall, Technical University of Munich
Announcement: 3rd German-Japanese Workshop on Computational Mechanics, March 30-31, 2015, Munich, Germany
The German Association for Computational Mechanics (GACM) and the Japan Society for Computational Engineering and Science (JSCES) are happy to announce that the 3rd German-Japanese Workshop on Computational Mechanics will take placein Munich, Germany on March 30-31, 2015. The aim of this workshop series is to intensify the scientific relationship between senior and junior German and Japanese researchers in the broad field of computational mechanics. The first two workshops in this series took place in Yokohama, Japan, and Hannover, Germany.
More information on this workshop can be found here.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: 2nd International Workshop on Latest Advances in Cardiac Modeling, March 12-13, 2015, Munich, Germany
we are pleased to announce the 2nd International Workshop on Latest Advances in Cardiac Modeling to be held in Munich on March 12-13, 2015 at the German Heart Center Munich.
More information can be found on the evolving webpage at:
http://www.lnm.mw.tum.de/lacm2015
For organizational purposes it would be great to hear back from you at your earliest convenience. So, if you are intending to submit an abstract or to just attend the workshop without a talk, we would appreciate you give us a short notice.
Hoping to welcome you in Munich,
Cristóbal Bertoglio, Isabel Deisenhofer, Markus Schwaiger
and Wolfgang A. Wall, Technical University of Munich
Announcement: 4th ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computational Contact Mechanics, May 27-29, 2015, Hannover, Germany
It is our great pleasure to announce that the 4th International Conference on Computational Contact Mechanics (ICCCM15) will be organized by the Institute of Continuum Mechanics together with the MUSIC Graduate School (Multiscale Methods for Interface Coupling) at Leibniz Universität Hannover under the auspices of ECCOMAS and GACM. The conference will be held from May 27-29, 2015 at the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany.
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: February 2, 2015
Notification of abstract acceptance: February 13, 2015
Early registration deadline: March 28, 2015
More information about this event is available at:
www.icccm15.uni-hannover.de.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
Announcement: 6th GACM Colloquium and 3rd ECCOMAS Young Investigator Conference, July 20-23, 2015, Aachen, Germany
It is our great pleasure to announce that the 6th GACM Colloquium and the 3rd ECCOMAS Young Investigator Conference (YIC) will take place July 20-23, 2015 at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. The YIC GACM 2015 focuses on bringing together young researchers to discuss, learn, collaborate and present their latest research results. Contributions to any topic of scientific interest within Computational Science and Engineering are welcome. The main areas are:
- Computational Applied Mathematics,
- Computational Engineering Science,
- Computational Fluid Dynamics,
- Computational Materials Science,
- Computational Solids and Structural Mechanics and
- Scientific Computing.
As a conference designed by young researchers for young researchers, we will offer a variety of highlights such as a Science Slam, a Journal Club, and numerous social events. In addition, we will host the ECCOMAS Ph.D. Olympiad of 2015. We are very happy to announce that the event will be held in direct sequence with the AC.CES conference organized by the graduate school AICES of RWTH Aachen University. The target group of the YIC GACM 2015 is young researchers under the age of 35. Of course, senior scientists are welcome as well.
Important dates
Minisymposia submission deadline: October 24, 2014
Abstract submission deadline: January 16, 2015
Notification of abstract acceptance: March 6, 2015
Paper submission deadline (optional): May 15, 2015
Early registration deadline: May 15, 2015
Additional information can be found here.
Stefanie Elgeti, YIC GACM 2015 Organizing Committee
Ted Belytschko, Ph.D., one of the most influential, creative and dominating scientists in Computational Mechanics in the last decades, passed away on September 15 at the age of 71
It is with great sadness that we have to report to the GACM membership that Ted Belytschko, one of the most influential, creative and dominating scientists in Computational Mechanics in the last decades and a good friend to many of us, passed away on September 15 at the age of 71. Ted Belytschko was born on January 13, 1943. He has earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanics and his Ph.D. in engineering sciences at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty at Northwestern University in 1977 and had been a professor of computational mechanics since 1991; since 2003 he was not only the Walter P. Murphy Professor but also had been a McCormick Distinguished Professor.
This is not the place to list all the great, innovative and sustained contributions that Ted has made in our field. Science and the development of computational methods for engineering problems and the applied sciences was not only his profession but his passion. He has been working on an amazing wide variety of topics in an impressive depth. He has published great and widely used books and more than 400 journal papers. Besides his research and teaching activities, Ted was also very committed in our scientific community and has provided outstanding service in many ways over the years. And he has received numerous distinguished honors and awards including a number of the most prestigious medals in the field. But the most significant honors and awards are probably the many successful careers of his former Ph.D. students and coworkers and the honest and highest reputation - as a teacher, a scientist, a mentor and as a person and friend - that he has enjoyed from many colleagues and people in the field.
Ted also had a special relationship to Germany. When he was a kid he lived here with his parents for a while and he could speak German very well - several times proven, starting with a charming "Wie geht es Ihnen?". Already in the 1970s he took part in a US-German Symposium and in numerous more meetings in Germany since then. Several GACM members also had the privilege to work with him as a postdoc in his lab at Northwestern University.
GACM cordially bows to this great man, scientist and friend and we all will keep his memory in great honor.
Wolfgang A. Wall, GACM President
GACM Best PhD Award 2013 / ECCOMAS Best PhD Award 2013
It is our great pleasure to announce that Dr. Henning Sauerland (RWTH Aachen) is not only the recipient of the GACM Best PhD Award 2013, but his thesis "An XFEM based sharp interface approach for two-phase and free-surface flows" has also been selected as one of two winning dissertations of the ECCOMAS Award for the Best PhD Theses in Europe 2013. The meeting of the Evaluation Committee for the ECCOMAS Best PhD Award 2013 was held on May 9th, 2014 at CIMNE, Barcelona. As a response to the call for tender, the ECCOMAS Member Associations nominated 16 theses. The Evaluation Committee was composed by Nils-Erik Wiberg (chairman), Marino Arroyo, Chris Lacor, Simona Perotto, and Josef Eberhardsteiner (secretary). After a detailed discussion, a voting process was held in two phases. Finally, the committee unanimously agreed on selecting the two winners.
The two winners are
Dr. Henning Sauerland (Germany) for the thesis "An XFEM based sharp interface approach for two-phase and fr!ee-surface flows"
Dr. Francesc Verdugo (Spain) for the thesis "Error assessment and adaptivity for structural transient dynamics"
Both theses are outstanding works in Computational Methods combining excellent knowledge of both theory and practice. The award decision was based on the originality of the theses, its scientific contents and the innovative numerical developments.
Alexander Popp, GACM Secretary General
GACM Best PhD Award 2012
At the last general assembly of GACM the member body of GACM voted with one accord for a proposition brought in by the president and the executive council to not install awards for senior researchers but to establish an award for young academics, namely the GACM Best PhD Award.
The first such award was confered at the GACM colloquium 2013 in Hamburg and the awardee is Dr.-Ing. Bojana Rosic for her thesis "Variational Formulations and Functional Approximation Algorithms in Stochastic Plasticity of Materials". The PhD work of Dr. Rosic led to a joint doctoral degree from TU Braunschweig and the University of Kragujevac and has been performed under the academic supervision of Prof. Herrmann Matthies and Prof. Miroslav Zivkovic. As awardee Dr. Rosic was also invited to give a plenary lecture at the GACM colloquium 2013 and all colloquium partcipants could witness an impressive presentation.
GACM Best Poster Awards
During the GACM colloquium 2013 in Hamburg, again a poster competition took place. The jury consisting of the plenary lecturer of the colloquium, the conference chairman and the GACM president had a hard time to choose from a number of outstanding posters. Finally the decision was to confer three awards. The first prize went to Florian Hindenlang from the University of Stuttgart for his excellent poster contribution “Discontinuous Galerkin for High Performance Computational Fluid Dynamics“. The second prize went to Severin Schmitt from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for his excellent poster contribution “Towards a Dislocation based Continuum Theory of Plasticity“ and the third prize to Ajay B. Harish from the Leibniz University Hannover for his excellent poster contribution “Computational Implementation of Finite Thickness Non-Local Cohesive Zone Element for Crack Propagation in Filled Elastomers“.
