A professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) won the first-ever prize for excellence in solid mechanics, the school announced on Thursday.
Michael Ortiz, the Hayman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, won the inaugural Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics.
He will receive a plaque and 25,000 U.S. dollars at the 22nd Congress of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics scheduled for August in Adelaide, Australia.
The award will be handed out every four years, CalTech said.
Ortiz was recognized for several contributions he made in his field during the last 10 years, including computing a new method for plastic deformation, which reshapes a material without breaking it.
In a statement, Ortiz's colleague, CalTech mechanics and materials science professor Kaushik Bhattacharya, described this method as "a combination of the cutting edge of mechanics and the cutting edge of mathematics."
Another Ortiz contribution, called the "quasi-continuum method," forms a bridge between the way engineers describe mechanical properties of materials at the scale of the atom and the way they describe these properties at a larger scale.
Bhattacharya described Ortiz's quasi-continuum method as being years ahead of its time.
In a statement, Ortiz said he was honored to win the award.
"I have always enjoyed working closely with mathematicians, physicists and chemists, and I hope that this prize will underscore the importance of those collaborations," he said, adding he was "greatly indebted to my brilliant students."
Source: Xinhua
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