There are three areas of current research interest towards which the principle investigator will use the funds from the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award. These areas can be listed under "computational micromechanics of solids" with special emphasis on novel ceramic, optical and electronic materials. The first topic is the study of transformation toughening in ceramic materials as a mechanism for considerably increasing the fracture toughness of brittle solids. The second topic is the study of the mechanical properties of thin films for optical and electronic applications, and the third topic is the generation of defects during the crystal growth from the melt of shaped crystals for electronic applications such as gallium arsenide. The three areas listed above include a considerable computational component. The computational techniques will be used to correlate microstructural variables to macroscopic and control parameters.
