William Curtin receives the Irwin Gold Medal

Every four years, the International Congress on Fracture (ICF) awards gold medals honoring pioneering scientists Takeo Yokobori, Alan Cottrell, George Irwin and Paul Paris, and one silver medal, to honor Constance Tipper. In particular, the Irwin Gold Medal is presented to "a senior researcher whose pioneering contributions have had lasting impact on engineering applications of fracture theories". George Irwin (1907-1998), after whom the medal is named, was an American scientist and pioneer of fracture mechanics, who spent most of his career at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C.

William Curtin, who is a project leader of NCCR MARVEL's Pillar 1, Design and Discovery of Novel Materials, is one of the three recipients of the Irwin Gold Medal at the 2023 edition of ICF, which will take place in Atlanta, USA, from 11 to 16 June.  The award acknowledges his "pioneering contributions to multiscale mechanics modeling of materials".  

Curtin will share this year's Irwin Gold Medal with Prof. Huajian Gao, from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, awarded "for leadership & major contributions on the mechanics of engineering & biological materials", and Prof. Norman Fleck from the University of Cambridge, "for seminal contributions to the deformation & failure of solid structures".  

More details on the awards, including the winners of the other medals and the list of past recipients, can be found on the ICF website.