Prof. Itai Einav in Dresden

Prof. Itai Einav from the University of Sydney will visit our institute from 3^rd to 6^th of May 2017 in the context of a joint research project that is funded by the DAAD. On Friday, 5^th of May, he will give a presentation on his research interests and methods at the Neufferbau in room NEU101. Prof Itai Einav obtained the PhD in Civil Engineering in 2002 from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. In 2005 he joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney, where he became Full Professor and the Director of Sydney Centre in Geomechanics and Mining Materials in 2012. The abstract of his talk should highlight the versatility of his research interests.

Title: From sand and rice bubbles to earthquakes and snow avalanches

Summary:

The Universe is granulated. Stars, planets and asteroids are all relatively small particles when compared to galaxies (themselves, particles when seen from afar). They are relatively huge when compared to sand particles. The number of atoms in a single particle of sand is roughly the same as the number of sand particles in Australia¹s beaches, somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000. Together with dry rice, M&M¹s and pharmaceutical powders, sand particles belong to the class of granular materials, the second-most manipulated material in industry (after water). But the motion of sand particles is far less understood than the motion of atoms in water or the motion of celestial bodies and galaxies. What is it about sand particles and rice bubbles that makes them so hard to describe? What governs their motion, and how can they inform us about important phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes and snow avalanches? This talk will tackle those questions.