Valery I. Levitas

Valery I Levitas is a Ukrainian mechanics and material scientist, academic and author. He is an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and Murray Harpole Chair in Engineering at Iowa State University and was a faculty scientist at the Ames National Laboratory.

Levitas is most known for his works on the mechanics of materials, stress and strain-induced phase transformations and chemical reactions. Among his authored works are his publications in academic journals, including Science, Nature Communications, Nano Letters as well as monographs such as Large Deformation of Materials with Complex Rheological Properties at Normal and High Pressure. He is the recipient of the 2018 Khan International Award for outstanding contributions to the field of plasticity.

Education Levitas earned his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kiev Polytechnic Institute in 1978, followed by a PHD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Institute for Superhard Materials in 1981. In 1988, he completed a Doctor of Science degree in Continuum Mechanics from the Institute of Electronic Machine Building. Furthermore, in 1995, he obtained his Doctor-Engineer habilitation in Continuum Mechanics from the University of Hannover. He pioneered the field of theoretical high-pressure mechanochemistry through the development of a comprehensive four-scale theory and simulations and molecular dynamics to nano- and microscale phase-field approaches and macroscale treatment. His work includes coupling theoretical frameworks with quantitative in-situ experiments using synchrotron radiation facilities to investigate phase transformations and plastic flow in various materials under high pressure and large deformations. His research team discovered and harnessed the phenomenon of "rotational plastic instability" to lower the required pressure for producing superhard cubic BN, reducing it from 55 to 5.6GPa. In addition, their theoretical insights enabled a reduction in the transformation pressure from graphite to diamond, dropping it from 70 to 0.7GPa through shear-induced plasticity. Moreover, his team unveiled a new amorphous phase of SiC, the self-blow-up phase transformation-induced plasticity-heating process explaining deep-focus earthquakes, the pressure self-focusing effect, virtual melting at temperatures up to 5000K below melting point as a novel mechanism of solid phase transformation, stress relaxation, and plastic flow. Furthermore, his group introduced a mechanochemical melt dispersion mechanism to explain unusual phenomena in the combustion of Al particles at nano and micro scales, proposing significant advancements in particle synthesis, including the creation of prestressed particles, to enhance their energetic performance. He also advanced phase field approach to various phase transformations, dislocation evolution, fracture, surface-induced phenomena, and their interaction by introducing advanced mechanics, large-strain formulation, strict requirements, and extending to larger sample scale.

Awards and honors 1995 – Distinguished Paper Award, International Journal of Engineering Sciences 1998 – Richard von Mises Award, GAMM 2007 – ASME Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2010 – Lifetime Achievement Award, International Biographical Centre 2011 – Honorary Doctor in Materials, Institute for Superhard Materials 2018 – Khan International Award 2023 – Member, EU Academy of Sciences 2023 – Member, European Academy of Sciences and Arts 2023 – IAAM Fellow, International Association of Advanced Materials