Juan C. Simo
{{Short description|Spanish engineering professor}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Juan C. Simo
| birth_date = 1952
| birth_place = Spain
| death_date = {{death date and age|1994|09|26|1952}}
| death_place = Madrid, Spain{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Robert L. |date=1995-05-15 |title=Obituary: Juan Carlos Simo (1952–1994) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nme.1620380902 |journal=International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering |language=en |volume=38 |issue=9 |pages=1429–1430 |doi=10.1002/nme.1620380902 |issn=0029-5981}}
| known_for = Contributions to finite element theory and computational mechanics
| fields = {{Indented plainlist|
}}
| workplaces = {{Indented plainlist|
- Stanford (1985–1994)
}}
| education = University of California, Berkeley (PhD, 1982)
}}
Juan Carlos Simo (1952 – September 26, 1994) was a professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford who worked in the field of computational mechanics. His work focused on engineering analysis, particularly in the area of finite element analysis of inelastic solids and structures.{{cite book |title=Mechanics: From Theory to Computation: Essays in Honor of Juan-Carlos Simo |date=17 October 2012 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1461270591}}
Career
Simo studied the mathematical formulation of mechanical models and the development and analysis of numerical methods for simulating them. He co-authored a textbook with Thomas J.R. Hughes on computational inelasticity.{{cite book |last1=Anand |first1=L. |authorlink=Lallit Anand |last2=Govindjee |first2=S. |title=Continuum Mechanics of Solids |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0198864721 }} With his graduate students, he published works demonstrating convergence for algorithms used in the field.
Simo's work was advanced nonlinear mechanical theories for beams and shells{{cite book |last1=Antman |first1=S. |author-link1=Stuart S. Antman |title=Nonlinear problems of elasticity |series=Applied Mathematical Sciences |date=2005 |volume=107 |publisher=Springer New York |doi=10.1007/0-387-27649-1 |isbn=978-0-387-20880-0 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-27649-1}}. His work on the subject emerged in the wake of Clifford Truesdell's reformation of mechanics, which paved the way for generalized models of these classical theories, such as Paul Naghdi's treatment of shells and Stuart Antman's special Cosserat rod. However, these models were not suitable for finite element methods because they were posed over solution spaces lacking a vectorial structure. Simo's approach, shaped by his interest in differential geometry and his collaborations with mathematicians like Jerrold Marsden, overcame these limitations and represented an advancement in applying finite element methods to these complex nonlinear systems.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}
Simo also made contributions to the mathematical foundations of finite element analysis. His investigation of the patch test illuminated the mathematical basis for the procedure{{cite book|last1=Zienkiewicz |first1=O. C.|author-link1=Olgierd Zienkiewicz|first2=R. L. |last2=Taylor |first3=J. Z. |last3=Zhu |title=The Finite Element Method: Its Basis and Fundamentals|publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann|date=May 2005|edition=6|isbn=0-7506-6320-0}} and his perspective on mixed finite element methods contributed to their use as a variational technique.{{cite book |first1=G. |last1=Strang |author-link1=Gilbert Strang |first2=G. |last2=Fix |author-link2=George Fix |title=An Analysis of The Finite Element Method |url=https://archive.org/details/analysisoffinite0000stra |url-access=registration |publisher=Prentice Hall |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-13-032946-2}}
Throughout the course of his career, he published about 80 papers and three books.
Death
Awards and honors
Simo received the Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1987{{cite web |title=NSF 92-55 Directory of Awards, Engineering Directorate |url=https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/stis1992/nsf9255/nsf9255.txt}}{{Cite news |date=1987-01-10 |title=Six Stanford researchers honored |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-peninsula-times-tribune-six-stanford/170722077/ |access-date=2025-04-20 |work=The Peninsula Times Tribune |pages=2}}, was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1990, and became a full professor in 1993.{{Cn|date=March 2025}} Shortly after, he was appointed Chairman of the Applied Mechanics Division{{cite web |title=Simo |url=https://mechanics.stanford.edu/simo |access-date=4 April 2024}}. In 1994, Juan was honored with the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
In 2010, the annual Juan C. Simo Thesis award was established by the Mechanics and Computation Division at Stanford to commemorate the life and contributions of Simo.
The Spanish Society on Numerical Methods in Engineering (SEMNI) also presents a yearly award named in honor of Simo, which recognizes "young researchers in the field of numerical methods and their applications."{{Cite web |date=2017-01-04 |title=Dr. Pavel Ryzhakov wins the Juan Carlos Simó Prize 2017 |url=https://www.cimne.com/vnews/10093/dr-pavel-ryzhakov-wins-the-juan-carlos-simo-prize-2017 |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=www.cimne.com}}{{Cite web |title=Premios y distinciones – SEMNI |url=https://semni.org/premios/ |access-date=2025-04-20 |language=es |quote=Premio SEMNI Juan Carlos Simó al joven investigador}}
Books
- Juan C. Simo and Thomas J.R. Hughes, Computational Inelasticity. Springer (1998).{{cite book|last1=Simo|first1=J.C.|last2=Hughes|first2=T.J.R.|author-link2=Thomas J.R. Hughes |title=Computational Inelasticity |series=Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics |year=1998|volume=7 |doi=10.1007/b98904 |isbn=0-387-97520-9 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/b98904}}
References
{{reflist}}
Category:Stanford University Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlos Simo, Juan}}