June 26, 2023
Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar, a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at UT Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering, has been awarded the Takeo Yokobori Gold Medal by the International Congress on Fracture (ICF).
A fellow member of the ICF, Ravi-Chandar was presented with the medal “for major contributions in the leadership of ICF and outstanding research in the field of fracture” at the 15th International Conference on Fracture held June 11-16 in Atlanta, Ga. The medal is awarded by the ICF every four years and is considered one of the society’s highest honors.
Ravi-Chandar’s research interests lie in the general area of mechanical behavior of solids with a particular emphasis on high strain rate fracture behavior. His current thrusts are in the areas of ductile fracture of structural materials and inelastic, damage, and fracture behavior of soft materials. The focus of this research is to generate a fundamental understanding of the way in which materials deform and fail, which requires a well-integrated experimental and theoretical study conducted at various spatial and temporal resolution.
One example of Ravi-Chandar’s current research projects includes serving as a co-investigator on a $3.7 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health. This work is focused on developing an anatomically and constitutively accurate breast biomechanical model to be used as a reliable and useful tool in patient-specific modeling of breast reconstruction following mastectomy.
Some of Ravi-Chandar’s prestigious awards include the Prager Medal from the Society for Engineering Science, the Drucker Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Murray Medal from the Society of Experimental Mechanics.
Ravi-Chandar has been a faculty member of the department since Sept. of 2000. He currently holds the M.C. (Bud) and Mary Beth Baird Endowed Chair. He is well recognized for his scholarly contributions and has presented a number of invited lectures at national and international meetings. He has also served as a consultant to several companies dealing with problems of structural integrity.
