Marc André Meyers

BRIEF HISTORY OF MY WRITING CAREER

I was born in a deep valley in Brazil, surrounded by woods and the pungent smell of a steel plant which spewed fire and dust over the region. It is in Joao Monlevade that my father, coming from Luxembourg, toiled as a rolling mills engineer and where my mother raised us four brothers. This town marked me forever, and the lessons taught by dedicated Dutch nuns and Padre Henriques, whose admonitions for me to write had to bear fruit, sank into my soul and created in me the necessity to accomplish the goals they traced for me. Hence, the little boy dreamt of becoming, one day, a writer.

But engineering came first, a necessity of practicality. Nevertheless, I published a book of poems in my senior year, and I left Brazil, forfeiting a prestigious scholarship for which I was a finalist.

In the US, I embarked into a research career that has taken fifty years. It is by chance that I had the time to revisit my old writings while in Germany on a Senior Scientist Award from the Humboldt Foundation. As a result of this time for reflection, I republished my poems under better auspices, after translating them to English. This reawakened my old dreams and stimulated me to take back the thread of writing where I had left it, in my adolescence. Painfully at first, then with increasing enthusiasm, I wrote five novels, four of which appeared in print.

WRITING:ORIGINS

It is 1925 or thereabouts. The spring sun, still pallid, carries warmth that thaws the fields on the Kocher plateau overlooking the village. Emile Schleich guides his plow along the deep tills that the 'percheron' horse carves with a quiet force. Suddenly the plow stops. The horse strains, but cannot dislodge it. Emile curses a couple of times, commands the horse to back up, and then inspects the rock.

On several occasions, he had unearthed horseshoes, which had been identified by the schoolteacher as Roman. He had told him that their village at the bottom of the hill, Feulen, had been a Roman property, the Latin name being Fulina. The schoolteacher had explained to him that the Romans used to run their chariots on the large flat plateau. Emile digs around the rock and its shape gradually takes life, gaining angularity. It is not a mere boulder, but a chiseled slab. With the help of the servant, he uncovers a tomb. Pulling the slab off, he finds, among other artifacts, a large amphora. Excited, they load it on the wagon and drive home. Inside the farmhouse, they break the seal. Madeleine, his wife, sticks her hand into the hole and her expression of curiosity turns into pleasure. She pulls the hand out and opens it. It is filled with coins. Their daughter Marianne inspects them, admiring the Roman heads embossed on them. They spend the evening and part of the night discussing what to do. Finally, Madeleine says: "This does not belong to us, Emile. Let us send it to the nation. I'll write a letter to the Gross Herzogin."

They go to bed, a little sad that they decided to part with the treasure but proud with their altruistic decision. The next morning, Madeleine takes the pen and composes a letter to Gross Herzogin Charlotte. She does it with some pain dampened by the pleasure of writing, a pleasure that she always had, composing poems that he threw across the classroom to her classmates, writing essays for them, and letters to her friends.

Time goes by. One day, Marianne watches excitedly through the living room window as a carriage rolls into the yard. She barely has time to warn her mother, who is preparing lunch in the kitchen. The little sister Madeleine waives at the coachman as knocks at the door echo in the hallway.

"Go, Marianne, open the door and see what the person wants," commands the mother, calling her little daughter into the kitchen.

Marianne reaches for the handle, as her mother is nervously taking her apron off. A distinguished gentleman takes his hat off and greets Marianne, who turns around and runs to the kitchen.

"My God, it's Printz Felix," murmurs Madeleine, putting aside her apron and stepping forward. "Please come in, your Excellency. You must have come because of..."

"Madame, I came because of the beautiful letter," he says gallantly. He opens his vest, pulls out the letter, and reads it aloud. "How can you write so well, living in a farm?"

"I don't live here, Your Excellency, I only vegetate."

"But these fields, this bucolic life in nature..."

"Sir, I miss the intellectual stimulation. But, please accept a glass of wine."

That little girl was my mother, who inherited the talent of writing and passed some of it to me, a gift and a burden.

And yes, I write, for some unknown reason, whipped by some cruel muse. By writing I can penetrate into unknown worlds, redress wrongs, create beauty and justice, free of the impediments of action and the difficulties and strictures of science. It is a magical wand through which I can transform reality by recreating it.

And thus, I march on, toward the end of my days, a lady on each arm. On my left, Musa, fun, fickle, and flirtatious. On the right, Scientia, solid, serious, and strong.

NON-TECHNICAL BOOKS

Abcission/Implosion, poetry iUniverse 2001

Mayan Mars, novel, Sunbelt Publications 2006

Chechnya Jihad,novel, Sunbelt Publications 2011

A Dama e o Luxemburghues,novel, Editora Record, Brazil 2013; D'Amour et d'Acier, Editions Saint Paul, 2015

Yanomami,novel, Createspace, 2016

River of Doubt: Reliving the epic Amazon journey of Roosevelt and Rondon on its centennial, Createspace, 2017

Our Lady of the Squids, novel, in preparation, 2019

PROFESSIONAL VITA:MY REAL JOB

I am a member of the Materials Science and Engineering community. My research field is the mechanical behavior of materials. Within this field, I has focused on three areas:

a) Dynamic behavior of materials;

b) Nanocrystalline materials;

c) Biological materials.

The dynamic behavior of materials comprises deformation, fracture, fragmentation, shear localization, chemical reactions under extreme conditions and processing (combustion synthesis; shock compaction; explosive welding and fabrication; shock and shear synthesis of novel materials). The underlying unifying theme is the high rate at which events occur. I initiated this work in 1970 and dedicated forty-five uninterrupted years of research to this field, making important strides to unify the field, by emphasizing the basic physical and chemical processes that the different phenomena have in common. Indeed, I hope that I defined the field through the now classic book, Dynamic Behavior of Materials (1994, ~3,000 citations, google scholar).

In the past ten years, I have applied Materials Science principles to biological materials. This approach, using the highly developed experimental and characterization capabilities developed by MSE, is yielding a cornucopia of new information on biological materials that is indeed enriching biology and expanding the frontiers of MSE. Some of his highly cited contributions are listed below:

1. [BOOK] MA Meyers, KK Chawla , Mechanical Behavior of Materials, 1998 (second edition, CUP, 2008

A balanced mechanics-materials approach and coverage of the latest developments in biomaterials and electronic materials, the new edition of this popular text is the most thorough and modern book available for upper-level undergraduate courses on the mechanical behavior of materials. A successful textbook that is used worldwide. This text has evolved from mechanical metallurgy. ~2,500 citations (on google scholar). It was translated into Chinese.

3. Meyers MA, Mishra A, Benson DJ, Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials PROGRESS IN MATERIALS SCIENCE Vol. 51, PP. 427-556, 2006, this overview article is used extensively in the materials community, ~3,300 citations (on web of science)

4. Meyers MA, Voehringer O, Lubarda VA, The onset of twinning in metals: A constitutive description , ACTA MATERIALIA Vol. 49 PP. 4025-4039. ~1,000 citations

5. Andrade , Meyers MA, Vecchio KS, Et al., Dynamic Recrystallization In High-Strain, High-Strain-Rate Plastic-Deformation Of Copper , ACTA METALLURGICA ET MATERIALIA Vol, 42 PP. 3183-3195, 1994, 400 citations

6. Quasi-static and dynamic mechanical response of Haliotis rufescens (abalone) shells Menig R, Meyers MH, Meyers MA, et al. ACTA MATERIALIA Vol. 48 PP. 2383-2398, 2000, 65 citations

7. Growth and structure in abalone shell, Lin A, Meyers MA

Source: MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING A-STRUCTURAL MATERIALS PROPERTIES MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROCESSING Volume: 390 Issue: 1-2 Pages: 27-41 Published: JAN 15 2005,

8. Meyers MA, Chen PY, Lin AYM, et al. , Biological materials: Structure and mechanical properties, PROGRESS IN MATERIALS SCIENCE Vol. 53 PP. 1-206, 2008, 56 citations

9. Menig R, Meyers MH, Meyers MA, et al., Quasi-static and dynamic mechanical response of Strombus gigas (conch) shells, MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING A-STRUCTURAL MATERIALS PROPERTIES MICROSTRUCTURE AND PROCESSING Vol. 297, PP. 203-211, 2001,

I am a Distinguished Professor in the University of California, San Diego. This is the highest professorial level in the UC system and represents an honor that is reserved for only a small fraction of the tenured faculty. I had visiting professorships at the U. of Karlsruhe, U. of Metz, and Cambridge U. (Cavendish Laboratory) and am currently supported by the major US funding organizations: National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research (MURI), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, U. of California Office of the President, and the Department of Energy.

Throughout my career, I received a number of important awards. The most prestigious of these, the Acta Materialia Materials and Society Award, which was bestowed in 2010, has a most distinguished list of recipients that includes global leaders in the materials science field. The other awards are from Europe (Heyn Medal of the German Materials Society, Humboldt Society Senior Scientist Award in Metal Physics, Germany, and J. S. Rinehart Award from the EURODYMAT Association), China (Lee Hsun Lecture Award from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and US (TMS Mehl, Educator, Cohen Awards; ASM White, Sauveur, Barrett Awards;APS Duvall Award; SMD/TMS Distinguished Scientist and Distinguished Service Awards). I am also the co-recipient, with D. Benson, E. Bringa, V. Lubarda, and S. Traiviratana of the JOM (TMS) best paper award in structural materials. In also received the following recognition: Fellow Award, TMS; Fellow, APS; ASM International. I am acorresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences

RESEARCH

Over the past fifty years, I was been funded by the U.S. Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, US Army Research Laboratory, Japan MITI, German Humboldt Foundation, UC Office of the President, DARPA, and Department of Energy. My current programs support a considerable number graduate students. Approximately fourty-five Ph.D.s and numerous M. Sc. were granted under his supervision. Additionally, over ten Post-Doctoral researchers worked with him. These research activities have led to the publication of approximately 460 papers. I have an H index of 80, and ~30,000 citations google scholar).

Highlighted below are some of my most recognized contributions:

* In my Ph. D. thesis, I proposed that the shock front in polycrystalline aggregates showed irregularities in position and pressure due to elastic and plastic anisotropy. I quantified these predictions and wrote two analytical papers on the subject. My attempts at verifying the effect experimentally failed, but recent scientific interest on the topic has led to measurements and computations that confirm the effect.

* An experimental method for the establishment of the kinetics and nucleation time for martensite. Using reflected stress waves, myself and students were able to establish the kinetics of athermal martensitic transformations. This technique was extended to ultrashort times and the nucleation time was established ( 20-50 ns).

* Dynamic recrystallization at high strain rates, This concept, initially received with considerable skepticism, is being recognized by the community as a significant contribution. It has important bearing on shear localization in metals.

* A model for plastic deformation at the shock front. I modified the Smith interface in order to account for the generation of dislocations. No supersonic dislocations are required in this model. This model has resisted the test of time and is well known.

* Mechanism for solid-liquid reactions in shock -induced chemistry [with K. S. Vecchio and L. H. Yu]. A similar mechanism seems to operate in intense shear and combustion synthesis. This new mechanism was documented and modeled analytically.

* Experimental and analytical investigation of the self-organization of shear bands in metals, ceramics, and granular media. With V. Nesterenko and other colleagues, I investigated the spacing of shear bands. They were able to conclude that this spacing is characteristic and evolves with the growth of shear bands. This work is reviewed in the recent book authored by Dr. T. Wright. This work has stimulated investigations in China and Israel.

* A model for the formation of annealing twins in metals. This work is widely cited in the literature. Key researchers have carried out experiments and analyses; there seems to be evidence for this mechanism, called "pop-out" mechanism.

* A mechanism for the effect of grain size on the yield stress of metals. This paper is described in some detail in the top text on interfaces. This model was recently extended to the nanocrystalline domain.

* I proposed a constitutive description of the slip-twinning transition.

* I developed a new method for the densification of combustion synthesis products involving a high-speed forging process which enables ceramics to be deformed while still hot from the exothermic reaction.

* With V. Lubarda, I proposed a mechanism for the growth of voids using a new typed of dislocation shear. It is interesting to notice that, although voids have been studied at great length, their growth by dislocations had not heretofore been explained.

I embarked, in the past years, into two new and exciting research directions: biological materials and ultrafine grained and nanocrystalline metals. I am focusing on the mechanical behavior of these materials and has made discoveries in this field that are receiving considerable recognition in the press.

These studies have as objective the development of new approaches for the synthesis of complex materials of the future.

I am also active in nanocrystalline materials and is carrying out research on ECAP to create ultrafine grained structures. His primary focus is to explain how the grain structure is formed by extreme plastic deformation. With D. Benson and A. Mishra, I published a major overview (129 pages) on the mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline materials.

ACTIVITIES IMPACTING SOCIETY

I have exercised leadership throughout his entire career by initiating and taking an active part in a number of important organizational/administrative responsibilities.

* At New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, I was the co-conceiver (with L. E. Murr), co-founder (with Dr. Marx Brook, in 1983) and Associate Director of the Center for Technology Research, a unique academic facility with extensive laboratories to test the effects of explosions and impact events on materials. This is the most complete explosives facility in a university in the world. CETR attracted, during the 80s and 90s, a large number of leading scientists from many countries. The creation of CETR enabled an unmatched reputation in explosive science and technology at New Mexico Tech. This center established the best experimental facilities in an academic institution worldwide and was funded by the State of New Mexico at the level of $1.3 M / year.

* I co-organized and co-chaired five international conferences (EXPLOMET 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, which he and L. E. Murr co-founded), four symposia at TMS/ASM meetings (Dynamic Behavior of Materials I, II, III, and IV), and a symposium on shear localization. This activity has been instrumental in advancing the field of dynamic behavior of materials over the past thirty years. A great amount of innovative research has been stimulated by these activities, and the field of dynamic behavior of materials is gaining recognition comparable with creep and fatigue in the materials community. These events had a very significant impact on the field and helped to define it. Prof. Sergio Neves Monteiro and I conceived and co-chaired three Pan American Materials conferences.

* I was an Advisor to the Director, Materials Science Division, US Army Research Office, from 1985 to 1987. His primary responsibility was to oversee ARO supported programs in the area of mechanical behavior of materials, with emphasis on dynamic behavior of materials. He organized a workshop in Virginia that brought together all Principal Investigators and many experts in dynamic behavior of materials. The policies and ideas that he helped to conceive at that time were important in determining funding directions. His activities at ARO had a significant and lasting impact in the field of dynamic behavior of materials.

As advisor to the Director, Materials Science Division I was actively engaged in the management of many Army supported research projects in the area of Mechanical Behavior of Materials.

* Coordination of research with Soviet scientists, 1992-95. I traveled to the USSR four times, attending conferences and developing joint research with researchers (Profs. S. S. Batsanov, V. F. Nesterenko, A. Deribas). I was selected as one of the key liaison scientists in a program of technological exchange in the area of shock-induced chemical reactions.

* At UC San Diego, I was one of the four Associate Directors of the Institute for Mechanics and Materials and its Director for eighteen months. The IMM summer schools, well received nationally, were one of the most visible activities as Associate Director. As a Director of the IMM, I coordinated over twenty symposia and workshops in a number of critical science and technology areas. These events were very important in stimulating a closer relationship between Mechanics and Materials.

* I was a subject editor (one of 100 leading Materials Scientists/Engineers) for the Encyclopedia of Materials Science and Technology, Elsevier's global effort for 2001. As a subject editor, I invited and coordinated the contributions of twenty-five experts in the field of mechanical behavior of materials.

* MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) Visiting Scientist, Japan. I was invited by the Japanese government to give a series of lectures at industrial laboratories, research institutes, and universities on the new technological developments taking place at the Center for Explosives Technology Research. I also carried out research at the Tsukuba Science City.

* I created, with L. E. Murr and K. P. Staudhammer, the John S. Rinehart Award on Dynamic Behavior of Materials. This award, which is global, was initially given at the Explomet conferences and now will be the responsibility of the EURODYMAT Association. Twelve awards were given.