Charbel Farhat Stanford University Presentation: A Computational Framework for Modeling Highly Nonlinear Multi-Phase Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems Charbel Farhat is the Vivian Church Hoff Professor of Aircraft Structures, Chairman of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Professor in the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, and Director of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center at Stanford University. He currently serves on the United States Bureau of Industry and Security's Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee (ETRAC) at the United States Department of Commerce, and on the technical assessment boards of several national research councils and foundations. He is designated by the Institute for Science Information (ISI) as a highly cited researcher in engineering. He is also the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the United States Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM) John von Neumann Medal, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society Gordon Bell Award, the International Association of Computational Mechanics (IACM) Computational Mechanics Award, a Department of Defense Modeling and Simulation Award, the USACM Computational and Applied Sciences Award, the IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award, and the United States Presidential Young Investigator Award. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fellow of the International Association of Computational Mechanics, Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation, Fellow of the US Association of Computational Mechanics, and Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has been an AGARD lecturer on aeroelasticity and computational mechanics at several distinguished European institutions, and a keynote speaker at numerous international scientific meetings. He is the author of over 400 refereed publications on fluid-structure interaction, computational fluid dynamics on moving grids, computational structural mechanics, computational acoustics, supercomputing, and parallel processing.
		Morteza Gharib California Institute of Technology Presentation: Lessons for Bio-Inspired Design: Morpho-Dynamics of Embryonic Heart Mory Gharib is a Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Bio-Inspired Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tehran University (1975) and then pursued his graduate studies at Syracuse University (M.S., 1978, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering) and Caltech (Ph.D., 1983, Aeronautics). After two years as a senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/CIT), he joined the faculty of the Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences Department at UCSD in 1985. In January 1993, he joined Caltech as a professor of aeronautics. Dr. Gharib's research interests have included free surface flows, vortex dynamics, micro-fluidics, advanced flow diagnostic systems such as micro laser doppler velocimetry, and digital image velocimetry. His research activities in the area of biomechanics include bio-propulsion, heart valve dynamics and valveless pumps. Dr. Gharib's honors and affiliations include Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Fellow, American Physical Society (APS); Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME); Distinguished Israel Pollak Lectureship Award, 2005; Sackler Scholar in Bioengineering, University of Tel Aviv; Watson Lecturer, Caltech, 1997 & 2002; Editor, Experiments in Fluids (1995-2003); Associate Editor, Journal of Fluid Engineering, ASME (1992--1995); Executive Committee Member, American Physical Society (1992--1995); Visualization Society of Japan, Award for Excellence, Visualized Image (Technical Section), 1995. He has received five new technology recognition awards from NASA in the fields of advanced laser imaging and nanotechnology. For his 3-D imaging camera system, he has received R&D Magazine's "R&D 100 innovation award" for one of the best inventions of the year 2008. Dr. Gharib holds more than 20 U.S. Patents.
		Pol Spanos Rice University Presentation: Joint Time-Frequency Analysis in Structural Dynamics Applications Pol D. Spanos is the Lewis B. Ryon Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of Civil Engineering at Rice University. He received a five year diploma in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science from the Technical University in Athens, and the MS Civil Engineering) and the Ph.D. (Applied Mechanics, minor in Applied Mathematics) degrees from Caltech. His interests are in the area of dynamics and vibrations, with emphasis on probabilistic, non-linear, and signal-processing aspects; and with applications to aerospace, materials, marine, mechanical, petroleum, and structural engineering. He has supervised the master's theses of more than 35 students and the doctoral theses of more than 40 students. His research findings have been disseminated in more than 300 papers in archival journals, technical conferences, and numerous industrial reports. He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics, and the Editor of the Journal of Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics. He is a Fellow of ASCE, ASME, AAM and he has served as the chairman of both the ASCE-EM and ASME-AM divisions. He has received several prestigious awards from ASCE, ASME, and the Von Houmboldt Foundation. He is a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens (National Academy of Greece), a Member of the USA National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and a Foreign Member of the NAE-India and of the Academia Europaea.
		Zhigang Suo Harvard University Presentation: Mechanics and Materials for Soft Machines Zhigang Suo is Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professor of Mechanics and Materials at Harvard University. He earned a bachelor degree from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 1985, majoring in Engineering Mechanics. Upon earning a Ph.D. degree in Engineering Science from Harvard University, in 1989, Suo joined the faculty of the University of California at Santa Barbara, and established a group studying the mechanics of materials and structures. The group moved to Princeton University in 1997 and to Harvard University in 2003. Suo teaches courses in solid mechanics and applied mathematics. His research centers on the mechanical behavior of materials and structures. Basic processes include fracture, deformation, polarization, and diffusion, driven by various thermodynamic forces (e.g., stress, electric field, electron wind, chemical potential). Applications are concerned with microelectronics, large-area electronics, soft materials, and active materials. With Teng Li, Suo co-founded iMechanica, the web of mechanics and mechanicians. He is a member of the Executive Committee (2005-2010) of the Applied Mechanics Division, of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and is a member at large of the US National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (2006-1010). Suo is a recipient of the Humboldt Research Award. He won the Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal and the Special Achievement Award for Young Investigators in Applied Mechanics, both from ASME. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.