Background
Professor Rudnicki's research has been in the area of inelastic behavior and failure of solids, particularly, geomaterials. He has been especially interested in the development of localized deformation and in the effects of coupling between deformation and fluid diffusion, in connection with applications to the mechanics of earthquakes, energy storage and recovery, disposal of toxic wastes and geological sequestration of CO2.
Professor Rudnicki is a Fellow of the ASME, received the Brown Engineering Alumni Medal in 2008, received the Maurice A. Biot Medal in 2006 from the ASCE for "For his fundamental contributions to the mechanics of porous media and its applications to rock mechanics and geophysics" and in 1977 he received the Award for Outstanding Research in Rock Mechanics from the U.S. National Committee on Rock Mechanics, for the paper "Conditions for the localization of deformation in pressure sensitive dilatant materials" (with J.R. Rice), J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 23, 371 394, 1975
He has a held a variety of editorial and committee assignments. He is currently Chairman of the Geosciences Council for the Dept. of Energy Basic Energy Sciences, a member of the Advisory Council of the Southern California Earthquake Center, a member of Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics.
