Since the fundamental contributions of Galileo and Cauchy, it has become impossible to imagine the broad field of applied physics and especially civil engineering without strength-of-materials theory. In the same pioneering spirit, the Research Unit Strength of Materials and Biomechanics has dedicated itself to the broadest possible understanding of the mechanical strength of materials and structures, starting with very classical (and extremely successful) concepts such as beam theory and macroscopic stress-based failure criteria, and linking them to microscopic and nanoscopic effects, including frameworks such as molecular mechanics and electron density functional theory. Especially in the broad field of multiscale modelling and homogenization theory, the Research Unit Strength of Materials and Biomechanics has established itself as a protagonist and pioneer in the international research landscape.

As an interesting feature of the Research Unit, new theoretical and experimental concepts are often developed from a variety of practical engineering challenges (including, but not restricted to, pitting corrosion, oil pipelines under rockfall, aging streetcar tracks, durability of tunnels), and of open questions in biomechanics in the broadest sense (hierarchical load-bearing behavior of bones and biological tissues in general, medical image-to-mechanical model conversion, deformation behavior of DNA macromolecules, systems biology description of cell populations and their bio-chemo-mechanical interaction, application of material mechanics concepts in epidemiology).