John von Neumann Medal for Michael Ortiz

Bonn, 17.04.2019. The U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) has awarded Professor Michael Ortiz with the 2019 John von Neumann Medal "for pioneering and sustained contributions in developing computational methods to elucidate material behavior across length and time scales (atomistic to continuum), development of the quasi-continuum method, and authorship of highly cited articles". The award ceremony will take place during the 15th U.S. National Congress on Computional Mechanics in August.

Michael Ortiz joined the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics as a Research Chair in July 2016. Professor Ortiz spends half of his time in Bonn and the other half with his previous employer, the Caltech Institute in Pasadena/USA. In his research, he focuses on solid mechanics, a field that connects physics, computational mechanics, engineering, and applied mathematics. More on his research is available here.

Michael Ortiz has close ties to the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. There he received his Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering in June 1977 before he moved to the University of California in Berkeley.