Education:

Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Dr. rer. nat. (compares to PhD) in Physics, 1994 (magna cum laude)
Thesis title: Crack pattern formation as a structure forming process

Diploma (compares to MS) in Theoretical Physics, 1991
Thesis title: Growth of crack structures

Professional:

since 1/2002	Department of Physics, University of Missouri - Rolla Adjunct Assistant Professor
1997- 2001	Materials Science Institute, Technical University of Dresden, Germany Research Associate
1994-1996	Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara Postdoctoral Researcher
1991-1994	Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Group Mechanics of heterogeneous solids, at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany Graduate Research Assistant
Sept.-Oct. 1992	Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Visiting Scientist
1990-1991	Institute for Theoretical Physics, Technical University of Dresden Student researcher

Research:

- Ferroelectric thin films: modeling of self-polarization

- Current transport behavior in varistor ceramics: developed a computer simulation in order to understand the influence of microstructural disorder and the causes for failure.

- Electromechanically induced fracture: performed thermoelasticity calculations to reveal the mechanism of shock wave generation and fracture of electronic materials.

- Microstructural instability in single crystal thin film: calculated the free energy for different film morphologies to derive morphological stability diagrams.

- Nonlinear random resistor networks: proposed a model to study voltage driven current localization in a nonlinear RRN

- Crack pattern formation as a structure forming process: studied the influence of interaction and mutual unloading on the growth mode selection in multiple crack growth, using a potential approach and bifurcation theory.

- Thermal shock crack growth: used fracture mechanical calculations with the boundary element method to test the growth mode selection theory.

- Computer simulation of two-dimensional crack pattern formation: developed a fracture mechanics based model and studied the morphological transition from linear to ramified cracks.