Curt A. Bronkhorst – Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Engineering and Professor of Applied Mechanics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Bronkhorst received B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics in 1985 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1988 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1991 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career at Weyerhaeuser Company in 1991 as Senior Scientist in the Fiber Sciences group working on paper and fibrous composites microstructural characteristics related to material performance and manufacture. In 2002 he joined the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory and worked in the Fluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics Group (T-3). He contributed to the Stockpile Stewardship program as scientist, ASC and JMP project leader, principal investigator, subcritical experiment PI (Thermos), and MaRIE leadership. He joined the University of Wisconsin – Madison faculty early in 2019 and teaches within the Engineering Mechanics degree program. His work is focused upon developing advanced theories of coupled thermo-mechanical material deformation involving wide ranges of temperature, stress, and strain rate conditions. A theme of his current interests includes developing rigorous mechanical and thermodynamic descriptions of finite elasticity, dislocation slip plasticity, deformation twinning, structural phase transformation, porosity and adiabatic shear band damage, brittle damage, and ductile-brittle transition. Computational implementation of all developed models is also performed in either implicit or explicit computational frameworks depending upon loading conditions of interest. He is Director of the Army Research Laboratory funded Center for Extreme Events in Structurally Evolving Materials. He is guest scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is former Honorary Commander for the Wisconsin Air National Guard 115th Fighter Wing (2019-2025). He is fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and 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. The Theoretical and Computational Mechanics of Materials Group Website: https://uwtcmmg.engr.wisc.edu/