Advances in Applied
Mechanics Conference

Prof. Martin van Hecke studies soft and frustrated matter at AMOLF and Leiden, focusing on how complex behavior emerges from simple systems using experiments and theory. Since 2011 he has worked on mechanical metamaterials and 3D “machine materials” for applications in prosthetics and wearables. His ERC-funded research explores self-organizing materials that store and process information, linking materials and computation.

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Prof. Ferdinando Auricchio specializes in computational mechanics, developing finite element methods and simulation tools for medical applications, especially cardiovascular systems, at the University of Pavia. He also works on additive manufacturing and 3D printing, applying them to engineering and biomedical fields. With over 330 publications (H-index 49), Prof. Ferdinando Auricchio is a Fellow of IACM, received the ECCOMAS Euler Medal (2016), served as ECCOMAS Vice-President, and is a member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences.

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Prof. David Steigmann works in continuum and solid mechanics at UC Berkeley, focusing on thin films, shells, elasticity, and surface phenomena. His research combines theory with applications to membranes, surfactant films, and electromagnetic effects, as well as variational methods for thin structures. He is a Fellow of the Society of Engineering Science and recipient of the Levi-Civita Prize and Engineering Science Medal (2013), and serves on editorial boards of leading mechanics journals.

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Prof. Graeme Milton studies composite materials, metamaterials, and how geometry determines material properties, with key work on elastic composites and cloaking technologies. His pentamode materials concept impacts applications from seismic protection to manufacturing. He has also contributed to invisibility cloaking and proposed a torsion-based extension of gravity related to dark matter and energy. A leading applied mathematician, his work influences physics, engineering, and materials science.

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Prof. Sinan Keten studies the mechanics of soft materials, combining theory, multiscale simulations, and machine learning to design polymers and biomolecular materials for applications in engineering and medicine. At Northwestern University, he is the Jan and Marcia Achenbach Professor and a Fellow of APS and ASME, with awards including PECASE and the ASME Larson Award. From September 2026, Prof. Sinan Keten will become Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern.

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Prof. Gengkai Hu is a leading expert in solid mechanics and acoustic metamaterials, known for work on wave propagation, transformation acoustics, and material design, with applications in imaging and vibration control. He has served as Associate Editor for major mechanics journals and published widely on elastic waves, acoustics, and metamaterials. His honors include the National Outstanding Young Scholar Fund (2003), National Excellent Teacher Award (2004), and CSTAM Young Scholar Award (2004).

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Shaofan Li is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley whose research focuses on AI-assisted engineering design, computational modeling, failure mechanics, environmental fluid dynamics, and nano- to mesoscale studies of sustainable cementitious materials. He is also a recipient of major honors, including the NSF CAREER Award and the International Association of Computational Mechanics Fellows Award.

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Prof. Annalisa Buffa is a mathematics professor at EPFL and a leading expert in numerical analysis of partial differential equations. Her research includes computational mechanics, electromagnetics, and approximation theory. She received ERC Starting and Advanced Grants, the ICIAM Collatz Prize (2015), and has been an invited plenary speaker at major international conferences, including the International Congress of Mathematicians. In 2019, she was named a Highly Cited Researcher by ISI.

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