Dr. Raghu V. Prakash, currently Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras specializes in the areas of fatigue, fracture of materials (metals, composites, hybrids), structural integrity assessment, remaining life prediction of critical components used in Transportation, Energy sectors, apart from new product design. He has more than twenty five years of professional experience in the field of fatigue and fracture and has more than 80 Journal, Book Chapter publications and 100 Conference publications and edited 2 book volumes. He has developed test systems for use in academia, R&D and industry during his tenure as Technical Director at BiSS Research, Bangalore and teaches courses relating to Fracture Mechanics, Design with Advanced Materials, Product Design, DFMA at IIT Madras. He is a voting rights member of ASTM International (Technical Committees, D-30, E-08 and E-28) and has won several prestigious awards (Binani Gold Medal,Indian Institute of Metals), scholarships and Erasmus-Mundus Fellowships. He is the recipient of Distinguished Fellow of ICCES 2015. Dr. Prakash received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras in First Class with Distinction. He obtained his Master’s degree (by Research) and Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is a member of several technical societies (Indian Structural Integrity Society, Society for Failure Analysis, Indian Institute of Metals to name a few).Vikram Jayaram is Chair of the Division of Mechanical Sciences and Professor in Materials Engineering at Indian Institute of Science. He received his PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford University in 1985 and his Bachelor’s in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1978. Dr. Jayaram’s current research covers the mechanical behavior and testing of systems at small length scales, including fracture and creep. He also works on the low temperature processing of ceramic composites. Earlier, he has worked on the non-equilibrium processing of ceramics and the fabrication of ceramic metal composites through infiltration methods. He is an elected fellow of all the major science and engineering academies in India, Indian Institute of Metals and of the American Ceramic Society. He is a recipient of the JC Bose Fellowship of Department of Science & Technology of Government of India and has authored over 150 publications. Dr. Ashok Saxena most recently (until January 3, 2017) served as the Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. His current position is Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Dean Emeritus. He also served as the Dean of Engineering and the Raymond and Irma Giffels’ Chair at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Saxena previously held the position of Regents’Professor and Chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and 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 2012-2014. 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 is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions 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), 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, the Paris Gold Medal from the international Congress of Fracture (2017), and is an elected Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (2016). He is the author/co-author/editor of eight books and over 250 research publications.
