SEM Selects Chasiotis for Durelli Award

Ioannis Chasiotis, an associate professor in aerospace engineering (AE), adds to an impressive list of honors achieved in his young career with his recent selection as the 2013 A.J. Durelli Award recipient.

The Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) award recognizes “significant, innovative contributions of new techniques in experimental mechanics.” Recently promoted as a full professor, Chasiotis has been cited for “innovative experimental methods to resolve deformation in heterogeneous thin films and nanoscale polymeric structures with nanoscale resolution.”

Joining AE in 2005, Chasiotis’ research interests focus on experimental mechanics at the micron and the nanoscales, the mechanical reliability of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) and in general thin films and the failure mechanics of heterogeneous materials. Chasiotis started his career at the University of Virginia, having earned a master’s degree and PhD in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 and 2002, respectively. He earned his first degree in chemical engineering in 1996 from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

In 2011, Chasiotis received the J.R. Hughes Yong Investigator Award from the the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Young Investigator Medal from the Society of Engineering Science.

The SEM award was named in honor of A.J. Durelli, one of the most outstanding experimental stress analysts in the world during the second half of the twentieth century. Known primarily for his work in brittle lacquer techniques, photoelasticity, and moiré methods, Durelli consistently sought out new methods to solve problems rather than to solve new problems with existing methods. He often challenged his students and colleagues to view the world from a different perspective.

Chasiotis will receive the Durelli Award at the SEM 2013 Conference and Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics, which is to be held on June 3-5, 2013, in Lombard, Illinois.
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Contact: Ioannis Chasiotis, Department of Aerospace Engineering, 217/244-1474.

Writer: Susan Mumm, editor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, 217/244-5382.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.