John W. Rudnicki

John Walter Rudnicki (born August 12, 1951 in Huntington , West Virginia ) is an American engineering scientist .

John W. Rudnicki studied mechanics from 1969 at Brown University with a bachelor's degree in 1973, a master's degree in 1974 and a doctorate in solid mechanics with James R. Rice in 1977. As a post-doctoral student, he researched and taught geophysics at Caltech . From 1978 to 1981 he was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and from 1981 an associate professor at Northwestern University , where he was given a full professorship in mechanical, environmental and civil engineering in 1990.

He dealt in particular with the mechanics of geomaterials, especially local deformations such as the influence of local heating through friction generated during deformation and pore water in the event of faults. Applications he examined are e.g. B. carbon dioxide storage in rock, storage of energy and its recovery, storage of toxic waste and earthquakes. From 2005 to 2010 he was a consultant for the Southern California Earthquake Center . From 1997 to 2010 he was a member (and from 2008 to 2010 Chairman) of the Geosciences Committee in the Department of Energy .

In 2006 he received the Maurice A. Biot Medal ( for his fundamental contributions to the theory of porous media and application in rock mechanics and geophysics ) and in 2011 the Daniel C. Drucker Medal . In 1977 he received an award for outstanding research in rock mechanics from the US national committee for rock mechanics. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers .

Web links

• Homepage at Northwestern University

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Acknowledgment on the official website
2. ↑ For the work with James R. Rice Conditions for the localization of deformation in pressure sensitive dilatant materials , J. Phys. Solids, Vol. 23, 1975, pp. 371-394