Dr. Ashok Saxena is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas where in the past he has served as the Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs (2015-16), the Dean of Engineering and the Raymond and Irma Giffels’ Chair (2003-12), and the Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Billingsley Endowed Chair (2014-15). Dr. Saxena was previously at Georgia Tech in Atlanta (1985-2003) where he last held the position of Regents’ Professor and Chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to that he was a Fellow Scientist at the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh. He also served as the Vice Chancellor of Galgotias University in India for a two-year period between 2012-14. Dr. Saxena received his MS and PhD degrees from University of Cincinnati in 1972 and 1974, respectively in Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering and his B. Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1970 in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Saxena’s area of research is mechanical behavior of materials focusing on linear and nonlinear fracture mechanics and fracture in materials at high temperatures under the conditions of creep and creep-fatigue. He has published 250 research papers and has authored/co-authored/edited 9 books. He is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions in the field of fracture research that include the George Irwin Medal (1992) from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) for his pioneering contributions to creep fracture mechanics, the ASTM Award of Merit and Fellow (1994), Fellow of ASM International (1996), Fellow of International Congress on Fracture (2009), Fellow of Indian Structural Integrity Society (2018) and the Georgia Tech Outstanding Research Author Award (1993). He is a recipient of the Wohler Fatigue Medal from the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) in 2010, and is the recipient of the Fracture Mechanics Medal from ASTM (2009), and an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences (2016). In 2017, he received the Paul C. Paris Gold Medal from International Congress on Fracture. He has pioneered the development of several materials test standards for the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) in the area of Fatigue Crack Growth (E647), Creep Crack Growth (E1457), Creep-Fatigue crack Growth (E2760) and Creep-Fatigue Crack Formation (E2714) that are widely used for evaluating crack growth resistance of structural materials, throughout the world. He served as the President of the Indian Structural Integrity Society between 2015 to 2018.
