Gerhard A. Holzapfel received his M.S. degree in Civil Engineering and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Graz University of Technology in 1985 and 1990, respectively. In 1991, he traveled to Shenyang in the Northeast of P.R. China to work as a visiting scholar at an institution currently part of the Shenyang University. Then, he received a Schrödinger Scholarship from the Austrian Science Fund (Wissenschaftsfonds FWF) to work as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Division of Applied Mechanics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA, with the late Professor Juan C. Simo from 1993 to 1995.[8] He received his Habilitation in Mechanics from the Vienna University of Technology, Austria, in 1996. From May 1987 to November 2004, he was an Assistant at the Institute of Strength of Materials and then an associate professor at the Institute of Structural Analysis, Graz University of Technology, Austria.
Research
Holzapfel's research has mainly focused on nonlinear continuum mechanics, multi-scale constitutive modeling of solids at finite strains including fiber reinforcement, computational methods, fracture, and material failure. He has made seminal contributions to biomechanics, embracing experiments, continuum mechanics modeling and finite element implementations for a variety of soft biological tissues including artery walls, heart tissue, and brain tissues.
Besides his well-known textbook Nonlinear Solid Mechanics: A Continuum Approach for Engineering,[7] two of the constitutive models proposed by his group and longtime collaborator Professor Ray Ogden are now referred to as the hgo[9]
and goh[10]
models which have been implemented in commercial software such as Simulia Abaqus[11]
Awards and honors
Holzapfel has received many awards and honors including the following:
Holzapfel has authored a graduate textbook and co-edited seven books. He contributed chapters to 25+ other books, and published 280+ peer-reviewed journal articles. Some of his most influential publications include:
Holzapfel, Gerhard A. (2000). Nonlinear solid mechanics : a continuum approach for engineering. Chichester: Wiley. ISBN0-471-82304-X. OCLC43561722.
Holzapfel, Gerhard A.; Gasser, Thomas C.; Ogden, Ray W. (2000). "A new constitutive framework for arterial wall mechanics and a comparative study of material models". Journal of Elasticity. 61 (1/3). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 1–48. doi:10.1023/a:1010835316564. ISSN0374-3535. S2CID9214560.
Holzapfel, Gerhard A.; Sommer, Gerhard; Gasser, Christian T.; Regitnig, Peter (2005). "Determination of layer-specific mechanical properties of human coronary arteries with nonatherosclerotic intimal thickening and related constitutive modeling". American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulatory Physiology. 289 (5). American Physiological Society: H2048 –H2058. doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00934.2004. ISSN0363-6135. PMID16006541.
Holzapfel, Gerhard A.; Ogden, Ray W. (13 September 2009). "Constitutive modelling of passive myocardium: a structurally based framework for material characterization". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 367 (1902). The Royal Society: 3445–3475. Bibcode:2009RSPTA.367.3445H. doi:10.1098/rsta.2009.0091. ISSN1364-503X. PMID19657007. S2CID1610138.
^Baas, Jeroen (2023). "Bibliometrics". Elsevier Data Repository of World's Top 2% Scientists. Vol. 6. Elsevier Data Repository. doi:10.17632/btchxktzyw.6. Retrieved 22 October 2023.