About me
Since 1983, I am a permanent faculty at the TU Wien.
I received my PhD in 1976 from TU Wien. After a number of years in industry (eventually as Head of the Department for Scientific Computing – Mechanics, at VOEST Alpine, Linz, Austria) and several research stays abroad (e.g., MIT Cambridge, USA), I received the venia docendi (Habilitation) for “Mechanics” and became 1983 full Professor for Lightweight Structures and Aerospace Engineering (ILFB) at the TU Wien From 1983-2003 I served as Head of the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Aerospace Engineering. 1991-1997 I was Co-Chairman of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Micromechanics of Materials (Montanuniversität Leoben). In the years 1998-2007 I served as Vice-Rector for Research at TU Wien, and 2009-2016 I was Vice-President and Chairman of the Senate (Scientific Board) of the Christian Doppler Research Society (CDG). 2003/2004, during a Sabbatical-leave, I did research as Visiting Professor at TU Munich. From 2009 to 2018 I was Rector of the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM) in Udine (Italy). 2011-2014 I was Head of the Institute of Lightweight Design and Structural Biomechanics (ILSB) at TU Wien. Since October 2016 I am Professor emeritus.
Among the awards, which I received, the following are mentioned: full membership of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and of the Academia Europaea (EA) with seat in London; I am IACM-Fellow, CDG-Senior Fellow as well as Honorary Senator of the Christian Doppler Research Society; the TU Wien honored me with the Viktor Kaplan Medal.
Research
My main research areas are: Lightweight Structures (stress and stability analysis of thin walled structures, theory of plasticity, fracture mechanics, optimum design, model experiments) including “multi-scale analysis” already in the early 80s without calling it so, Numerical Engineering Methods (development and advanced applications of Finite Element algorithms for linear and nonlinear problems of structural and continuum mechanics), Biomechanics (bone mechanics, remodeling, prosthetics), Composite Materials (mathematical-mechanical and experimental treatment of composite and other multi-phase materials as well as composite structures and thin films), Nano-Materials (continuum mechanical formulations for and modelling of nanostructures, such as graphene, carbon crystallites, carbon onions etc.). Currently, I am most interested in instability phenomena associated with tension loading of thin structures.