Morton E. Gurtin (7 March 1934 – 20 April 2022) was a mechanical engineer who became a mathematician and mathematical physicist. He was an emeritus professor of mathematical sciences at Carnegie-Mellon University, where for many years he held an endowed chair as the Alumni Professor of Mathematical Science. His main work is in materials science, in the form of the mathematical, rational mechanics of non-linear

continuum mechanics Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such m ...

and thermodynamics, in the style of

Clifford Truesdell Clifford Ambrose Truesdell III (February 18, 1919 – January 14, 2000) was an American mathematician, natural philosopher, and historian of science. Life Truesdell was born in Los Angeles, California. After high school, he spent two years in Eur ...

and Walter Noll, a field also known under the combined name of ''continuum thermomechanics''. He has published over 250 papers, many among them in Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis,. as well as a number of books.Worldcat search
accessed 2010-01-22.

Biography

Gurtin received his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

(1955),Alumni faculty

, Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering Department, 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-22. and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (1961) from Brown University with a dissertation entitled "Some Theorems In The Linear Theory Of Elasticity"; his advisor was

Eli Sternberg Eli Sternberg (13 November 1917 – 8 October 1988) was a researcher in solid mechanics and was considered to be the "nation's leading elastician" at the time of his death. He earned his doctorate in 1945 under Michael Sadowsky at the Illinois In ...

.. His experience prior to his stint at Brown University includes work as a structural engineer at Douglas Aircraft, Los Angeles, and at General Electric (Utica, N.Y.), in their Advanced Engineering Program. He has taught at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences of

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

as professor in 1966 where he held the Alumni Chair in Mathematical Sciences from 1992 until his retirement. He has successfully advised over 20 doctoral students.

Research

Gurtin's research concerns nonlinear continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, with important contributions on the mathematical and conceptual foundations of these fields in the 1960s and 70's. Building upon groundlaying work by

and the conceptual framework proposed by Walter Noll in the 1950s, Gurtin applied geometric measure theory and dynamical systems to help clarify the basic notions and laws of thermodynamics. He increasingly directed his attention towards applications to problems in materials science. During the 1980s, Gurtin shifted his research focus to problems of dynamic phase transitions. This work is represented by two books, ''Thermomechanics of Evolving Phase Boundaries in the Plane'' (Oxford University Press, 1993) and ''Configurational Force as a Basic Concept of Continuum Physics'' (Springer-Verlag, 2000). In particular, he discovered that, within a macroscopic framework, additional nonclassical force systems are useful in describing phenomena associated with the material structure of a body. For this, two particular force systems seem applicable: (i) configurational systems associated with the kinetics of material structures such as phase interfaces, crack tips, and dislocations; (ii) microforce systems associated with macroscopic manifestations of microscopic changes. Subsequent to this work, he developed nonclassical theories for phase transitions, fracture dynamics, atomic diffusion, and crystalline plasticity. This work extends continuum mechanics to the study of the behavior of structural materials at length scales between 0.1–100 micrometers (100 micrometers being the approximate diameter of a human hair). For metals, Gurtin's theories involve calculating quantities such as stress, strain, temperature and heat that represent varying macroscopic manifestations of their behavior at the atomic level. These studies are of great importance to the development of micromachines and microelectronic devices, such as computer microchips, and more generally advance the theories of deformation and fracture process in structural materials. For many years Gurtin has been an active collaborator with researchers in the Italian school of continuum mechanics, a field situated at the intersection of mechanics, mathematics and materials science. His work, among the first to acknowledge the great contributions by the Italian school, laid the foundation for new, important areas of research into the behavior of

structural materials Structural engineering depends on the knowledge of materials and their properties, in order to understand how different materials resist and support loads. Common structural materials are: Iron Wrought iron Wrought iron is the simplest form ...

under varied operating conditions. Post-retirement, he advises the Ukrainian government regarding the operations of their armored units, assisting in the disposition and deployment of the Third Armored Regiment that defends

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Awards and honors

In 1990, Gurtin was Ordway Professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The University of Rome awarded him the

Laurea honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer deg ...

in civil engineering in 1994. In 1999, he won the Mellon College of Science's Richard A. Moore Award for Lifetime Education Contributions. The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Italy gave him their 2001 Cataldo e Angiola Agostinelli Prize, an annual prize in pure and applied mathematics and mathematical physics. In 2004, the

American Society Of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

gave him their Timoshenko Medal for his contributions to nonlinear continuum mechanics and thermodynamics.Confessions of a slightly frayed continuum mechanician
Morton Gurtin, 2004 Timoshenko Medal Acceptance Speech.2004 Timoshenko Medal

, retrieved 2010-01-22.

Selected publications

* . * .

References

External links

Home page
at CMU {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurtin, Morton 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Mathematical analysts 21st-century American physicists Thermodynamicists American materials scientists Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni Brown University alumni Brown University faculty Carnegie Mellon University faculty Living people Theoretical physicists 1934 births