Hugh Bruck Awarded Fulbright Scholarship at Tel Aviv University

Associate Professor Hugh A. Bruck was granted a Fulbright Scholar award by the Council for the International Exchange for Scholars in the 2005-2006 academic year. Professor Bruck will pursue research and teaching activities with colleagues at Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Tel Aviv, Israel. During his stay at TAU, Bruck will be hosted by Professor Jacob Aboudi, an internationally recognized leader in the area of micromechanical modeling of materials. They will be working together on development of new Materials by Design computational approaches for microstructured and nanostructured materials. These research activities will also build upon Bruck’s contributions to the development and characterization of functionally graded and nanostructured composite materials for advanced electronic, structural, and energetic applications.

While Bruck is in Israel, he will also be working to expand the relationship between companies and government agencies that he works with in Maryland, such as Rampf Molds Industries in Hagerstown, MD and Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indianhead, Maryland, and companies such as Ackerstein Industries in Tel Aviv, Israel and Rafael in Haifa, Israel.

Each year the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 scholars and professionals to more than 140 countries where they lecture or conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, university presidents, and have been recipients of 35 Nobel Prizes. Bruck’s Fulbright is sponsored by the Maryland-Israel Development Center (MIDC) located in Baltimore, Maryland. MIDC participants have included Maryland Governors Robert Ehrlich and Parris N. Glendening, state Senator Barbara Hoffman, Secretaries of the Department of Business and Economic Development James Fielder and Mike Lewin, and scores of business professionals.

Bruck’s Fulbright will be an opportunity to continue expanding the interaction between TAU and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UMD, a relationship that was initiated by the department Chair and Professor Avram Bar-Cohen and Associate Professor Joey Bernstein, who is a member of the Reliability Program in the department. This relationship was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Professor Touvia Miloh, Dean of Engineering at TAU, Professor Nariman Favardin, Dean of Engineering at UMD, and Prof. Bar-Cohen. Through the MOU, Prof. Bernstein has been able to spend the past two years at TAU teaching courses and developing a new Institute for Reliability. His activities were also sponsored by a Fulbright from MIDC, and through the Israeli User’s Association of Advanced Technologies for Design and Manufacturing in the Electronics Industry (ILTAM).

The ME Department at UMD has also benefited from visits by Fulbright Scholars such as Professor Yasser Shabana from Helwan University in Cairo Egypt. Shabana has been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses at UMD while spending time conducting research on computational simulations of advanced material processing with Bruck.

Published March 15, 2005