Vol.2, No 7, 1997 pp. xxii
An
outline of
SECOND EUROCONFERENCE
AND INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM:
MATERIAL INSTABILITIES
IN DEFORMATION AND FRACTURE
held in Thessaloniki,
Greece, 31. August - 4. September 1997
The main goal of the Conference was to bring
together researches from mechanics, material science and nonlinear physics
to contribute to the topic of Material instabilities in deformation and
fracture. All of participants had invited lectures, and young European
and United States researches had brief presentations and posters. The meeting
was a continuation of small interdisciplinary annual meetings organized
by the Mechanics division of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki between
1991-1995 as an outgrowth of a major international conference held in Thessaloniki
in August 1990, celebrating Aristotle's 23 centuries.
The Conference was open on Sunday August
31, by lecture of Nobel prize winner I. Prigogine, Brussels, Belgium: "The
Dynamical basis of self organization". Prof Prigogine was not able to come
and his co-worker I. Antoniou was presenter of his talk.
After that two lectures were given by
Prof J.R. Rice from Harward University, USA: "Problems in crack and fault
dynamics" and "Mode of shear rupture propagation; Enlarging crack versus
self-healing slip pulse". From USA, besides Prof. Rice there were: K. Valanis,
A. Needleman, S. Nemat-Nasser, Z. Bazant, A. Rosakis and others. From Europe:
J.R. Willis, A. Seeger, G. Maugin, H. Herman, A. Carpinteri etc. From Russia:
L. Pitaevski, V. Panin, N. Morozov, Y. Mescheryakov and others. From Greece:
E. Aifantis, D. Beskos, D. Panayiotounakos etc.
From Yugoslavia, three participants were
invited: J. Jarić, T. Atanacković and D. Šumarac.
To my opinion the Conference was on the
highest possible level, immediately after the one devoted to Aristotle's
23 centuries (which I was also attended), held at the same place in 1990.
All participants gave tremendous contribution to it, but I have to say
that presentations and discussions of Prof J.R. Rice made this conference
so successful. The important step forward of this conference was also that
mechanicists and physicists, from two points of view, discussed the same
problem. Surprising for me was also the fact that large part of papers
were in area of micro and nano-mechanics. This is probably the consequence
of good facilities (large electron microscopes and large computers) which
allow good experiments and numerical modeling on the level of atoms.
At the end of the Conference informal
round table session was established. Authorities in this field: J.R. Rice,
J. Li, A. Seeger, L. Pitaevskii, J. Willis, J. Jarić and G. Maugin have
given they are opinions about the Conference and future directions of research.
Up to now the book of Abstracts is published,
but the Proceedings will be published later on.
At the time of Conference, Thessaloniki
has been designated Cultural Capital of Europe for the year 1997.
Prof. Dr D. Šumarac
Belgrade, Nov. 07, 1997
