Robert O. Ritchie

H. T. & Jessie Chua Distinguished Professor of Engineering
Chair, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

www.lbl.gov/Ritchie

RORitchie@lbl.gov

Prof. Robert O Ritchie

EDUCATION

  • B.A. (Physics & Metallurgy), Cambridge University, UK, 1969
  • M.A. (Materials Science), Cambridge University, UK, 1973
  • Ph.D. (Materials Science), Cambridge University, UK, 1973
  • Sc.D. (Materials Science), Cambridge University, UK, 1990

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • Professor of Materials Science, University of California at Berkeley, 1982 to date
  • Head, Ceramic Materials, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2003 to 2006
  • Head, Structural Materials, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1995 to 2003
  • Faculty Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1984 to date
  • Honorary Visiting Professor, University of Plymouth, UK, 1992 to 2002
  • Director, Center for Advanced Materials, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1987-95
  • Deputy Director, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1990-94
  • Visiting Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, 1994
  • Class of 1922 Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1979-81
  • Assistant Professor, 1977-78; Associate Professor, 1978-81; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
  • Miller Research Fellow, University of California at Berkeley, 1974-76
  • Goldsmith's Research Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge University, UK, 1972-74

MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS

  • Nature-inspired structural materials
  • Mechanical behavior of hard mineralized tissue: bone, teeth;
  • High-cycle fatigue of turbine engine alloys: Ti-6Al-4V; Ni-base alloys; grain-boundary engineering;
  • Fatigue and fracture of ceramic and intermetallic materials: Toughening mechanisms in monolithic and composite materials (e.g., SiC, gamma-TiAl); layered structures; mechanisms of fatigue-crack propagation at ambient to elevated temperatures; role of microstructure;
  • Ceramic/metal interfaces: Fracture mechanics of bimaterial interfaces; strength and toughness of interfaces; interfacial subcritical crack growth; crack path considerations;
  • Damage-tolerance and life prediction in biomedical implants: Fracture and fatigue properties of metallic and pyrolytic carbon materials for stents and prosthetic heart valve devices;
  • Fracture and fatigue of silicon films for MEMS devices: Micro- and nano-scale fatigue testing; protective coatings;
  • Mechanical propertites of carbon nanotubes
  • Fracture and fatigue in shape-memory alloys and bulk amorphous metals

AWARDS and FELLOWSHIPS

  • Robert Franklin Mehl Award (TMS), 2010
  • Edward DeMille Campbell Memorial Lectureship Award (ASM), 2010
  • Alexander von Humboldt Senior U.S. Scientist Award, 2009
  • Sir Alan Cottrell Gold Medal (International Congress on Fracture), 2009
  • Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, 2009
  • Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2009
  • A.A. Griffith Medal and Prize (Institute of Materials, London, UK), 2007
  • Woehler Medal (European Structural Integrity Society), 2006
  • Nadai Medal (ASME), 2004
  • Fellow of TMS, 2004
  • ASTM Fatigue Lecturer, 2004
  • Fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK, 2003
  • Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, 2002
  • Member, National Academy of Engineering, 2001
  • Honorary Member of Gruppo Italiano Frattura (Italian Fracture Group), 1999
  • Distinguished Structural Materials Scientists / Engineer Award (TMS), 1996
  • Rosenhain Medal, Institute of Materials, London, UK, 1992
  • Most Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award in Ceramics, Dept. of Energy, 1989
  • Honorary Fellow, International Congress on Fracture, 1989
  • Fellow, Amercian Society for Materials (ASM Intl.) 1988
  • Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, American Society of Engineering Education, 1987
  • George R. Irwin Medal, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 1985
  • Champion H. Mathewson Gold Medal, TMS-AIME, 1985
  • Named as one of America's Top 100 Young Scientists by Science Digest magazine, 1984
  • Fellow, Institute of Materials, London, UK, 1983
  • Most Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment Award: Metallurgy, Dept. of Energy, 1982
  • Marcus A. Grossman Award, Amercian Society for Metals (ASM), 1980

NAMED LECTURES

  • George Weatherly Distinguished Lecture (Composites at Lake Louise, Canada), 2009
  • ICF-12 Honor Lecture (International Congress on Fracture, Ottawa, Canada), 2009
  • Stanford & Betty Penner Lecture (University of California, San Diego), 2008
  • Frontiers of Engineering Distinguished Lecture (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), 2007
  • Hong Kong Society of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics Distinguished Lecture (HKUST), 2007
  • Dow Lecture (Northwestern University, Evanston, IL), 2007
  • Arthur Newell Talbot Lecture (Theor. & Appl. Mech., University of Illinois), 2006
  • Hsun Kee Lecture Award (Institute of Metals Research, Shenyang, China), 2006
  • Kreidl Memorial Lecture (Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories), 2005
  • IBM Distinguished Lecturer (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), 2004
  • C. J. Beevers Memorial Lecturer, International Fatigue Congress, 1999
  • Southwest Mechanics Series Lecturer, 1997-98
  • Van Horn Distinguished Lecturer (Case Western Reserve University), 1997

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • President, International Congress on Fracture, 1997-2001
  • Member, U.C. San Francisco/U.C. Berkeley Bioengineering Faculty, 1995 to date
  • Member, National Research Council Committees on Advanced Space Technology, 1992-1994, Small Spacecraft Technology, 1993-1994, and New Materials for Civil Aircraft, 1994-1995
  • Governor, International Congress on Mechanical Behavior of Materials, 1987-95
  • Associate Editor, Materials Transactions, 2001 to date; Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 2000 to date; Transactions of ISI Japan International, 1997 to date; Engineering Failure Analysis, 1994 to date; Physiochemical Mechanics of Materials, 1993 to date; Mechanics of Materials, 1987 to date; Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 1979 to date; International Journal of Fatigue, 2002 to date; International Journal of Fracture, 2002 to date; Journal of Engineering Materials & Technology, 1984-90; Journal of Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, 1999 to date; Metallurgical Transactions, 1982-92
  • Co-chairman, Gordon Research Conference on Physical Metallurgy, 1992

Selected Publications

Ritchie Research Group
MSD , LBNL
Dept of MSME , UC Berkeley

last updated 12/09