James R. Rice wins Louis Néel Medal

James R. Rice is of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics in the S

James R. Rice is of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) at Harvard.

Mechanics and geosciences expert honored for seminal contributions to strain localization, poromechanics and friction
The 2012 Louis Néel Medal has been awarded to James R. Rice for his seminal contributions to the fundamental understanding of strain localization, poromechanics and friction.

The award committee praised his elegant and systematic studies that have elucidated fault mechanics and the coupling with hydrologic and thermal processes during all phases of the earthquake cycle.

This medal, given on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, is reserved for individuals in recognition of outstanding achievements in rock magnetism and rock physics and geomaterials.

Rice, Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) at Harvard, is widely recognized as the world’s leading researcher in solid mechanics over the last four decades, having contributed so broadly not only in engineering, but also in geosciences.

His early contributions in the areas of solid mechanics and materials science include the theory of crack propagation in elastic-plastic material, mechanics of void formation and ductile fracture, as well as formulation of inelastic constitutive relations.

Rice’s invention of the path-independent J-integral forms the basis for the practical application of nonlinear fracture mechanics to the development of standards for the safety of structures. Since the 1970s, he has shifted his research interest to also focus on fundamental mechanics problems that arise in seismology, tectonophysics and geomechanics.

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In rock physics, he and students have made seminal contributions in the mechanics of strain localization, poroelasticity and the coupling of deformation and fluid flow, as well as constitutive modeling of rock friction and instability.

The models of earthquake instability formulated to study these effects were among the first in which the instability was not postulated but arose in a mechanically consistent way from the interaction of the fault zone material behavior and the surroundings. For over two decades this constitutive framework has had significant impact on the mechanical analysis of all aspects of the earthquake cycle.

Rice’s seismological studies have elucidated the mechanics of the nucleation of rupture, thermo- and hydro-mechanical weakening of fault zones during seismic slip, slip patterns and complexity, postseismic deformation and aseismic creep, fracture propagation through branched and offset fault systems, as well as glacial earthquakes.

He received his B.Sc, M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees all from Lehigh University. Prior to coming to Harvard, he was a faculty member at Brown University. Rice’s numerous honors include elected memberships to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London and the Académie des Sciences, Institut de France.

Rice will receive the medal at a ceremony held at the meeting of the European Geosciences Union on April 24th in Vienna.