Professor Curt A. Bronkhorst is Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Applied Mechanics in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He also has appointments in the Engineering Physics Department and Materials Science & Engineering Department. He is Guest Scientist within the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is Honorary Commander for the Wisconsin Air National Guard 115th Fighter Wing. He is fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is a member of the ASME Materials Division Executive Committee. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Plasticity. He is also president of Northland Partners, LLC.
Courses taught: EMA 705, Advanced Topics in Finite Element Method; EMA 703, Plasticity Theory & Physics; EMA 710, Mechanics of Continua; EMA 519, Fracture Mechanics; EMA 405, Practicum in Finite Element Method; EMA 303, Mechanics of Materials.
email: cbronkhorst@wisc.edu
Noah Schmelzer received his B.A. in Applied Physics from St. John’s University of Collegeville, MN in the spring of 2019 and joined the University of Wisconsin as an Engineering Mechanics Ph.D. student in the fall semester of 2019. He is developing a thermodynamically consistent ductile damage model for better predictability of void-based damage during dynamic loading. He is also investigating the effect of grain boundary character on the nucleation of voids.
Courses Taught: EMA 201, Statics
email: njschmelzer@wisc.edu
Akhilesh Pedgaonkar is currently a PhD student in Engineering Mechanics. He has done his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University at Buffalo. He has also worked at Hero MotoCorp Ltd. and Ansys, Inc. before joining UW Madison. He is currently working on deformation twinning induced plasticity in pure Titanium. Deformation twinning is an important mechanism of plasticity in HCP materials. His work involves explicit computational representation of deformation twinning with coupled thermodynamics of plasticity.
Courses taught: EMA 201, Statics
email: pedgaonkar@wisc.edu
Sam Dunham is an Engineering Mechanics Ph.D. student with a B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering, with a specialization in Engineering Mechanics, both from Tennessee Technological University of Cookeville, TN. He is currently working on large deformation ductile damage mechanics and engineered grain boundaries during processing to mitigate damage site formation.
email: sddunham@wisc.edu
Ben Butler is an Engineering Mechanics Ph.D. student with an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University and B.S. degrees in Engineering Mechanics and Mathematics from UW-Madison. He has worked at Sierra Space, Collins Aerospace, and Woodward. He is currently working on a brittle damage model for materials.
email: btbutler@wisc.edu
Raymond Rasmussen is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student who joined the University of Wisconsin in the fall semester of 2023. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Saint Thomas MN in May of 2023. He is currently working on modeling the dynamic mechanical response of porous tantalum.
email: rrasmussen7@wisc.edu
Stephen Yang is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student who joined the University of Wisconsin in the fall semester of 2024. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Korea University in Seoul, South Korea in August of 2023. He is currently working on modeling the single crystal and polycrystal structural phase transformation of steel under conditions of high stress dynamic loading conditions.
Hyunsu Lee is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student who joined the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the fall semester of 2024. He received his M.S. in Mechanical engineering from Seoul National University in February of 2024 and his B.S. in Mechanical engineering from Inha University in February of 2022. He is currently working on developing a crystal plasticity model for additively manufactured Inconel 718, focusing on revealing the microstructure and its effects on the material’s mechanical properties.