Vakakis Invested as Named Professor

Professor Alexander Vakakis was invested as the W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor on October 17. Vakakis co-directs the University of Illinois’ Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics and Vibrations Laboratory (LNDVL) with Professor Lawrence Bergman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Vakakis’ current research activities include implementing passive nonlinear targeted energy transfer phenomena in designs for aeroelastic instability (flutter) suppression, disturbance mitigation in spacecrafts, seismic mitigation, and vibration and shock isolation of mechanical and structural components. He is additionally developing techniques for analyzing the dynamics of systems with strong nonlinearities, such as vibro-impacts, clearances or dry friction, and for multi-scale system identification and reduced order modeling of strongly nonlinear dynamical systems and processes relevant to structural health monitoring and damage detection. He more recently initiated research on passive nonlinear stress wave tailoring in materials through the use of essentially nonlinear granular interfaces, and is also investigating the design of strongly nonlinear nanoresonators as broadband sensors as well as the nonlinear energy harvesting of low-amplitude ambient vibration.

Vakakis earned a PhD in Applied Mechanics from the California Institute of Technology in 1990, an MSc in Applied Mechanics from Imperial College, London University, in 1985, and a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, in 1984. He is recipient of an NSF Young Investigator Award, a UIUC University Scholar Award, the UIUC Junior and Senior Xerox Awards for faculty research, and a UIUC Center of Advanced Study Fellowship. He is member of editorial boards of several technical journals in his field of staudy, and together with his students and collaborators has published five research monographs, and over 150 publications in archival journals.