An expert on the numerical simulation of structures
On 28 June Thomas Zimmermann, course leader at the Laboratory of Structural and Continuum Mechanics, was authorised by the Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology to bear the title of titular professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering. This distinction confirms the significance of this expert on the numerical simulation of structures at the Structural Engineering Institute.
Thomas Zimmermann's field of research extends to numerical simulation techniques applied to the static and dynamic analysis of continuum mechanics and structures, with a distinct orientation towards the understanding of non-linear behaviour patterns and behaviour patterns in rupture phases. Among Thomas Zimmermann's major contributions are his work on the Arbitrary Lagraugian Eulerian (ALE) Method and its developments in the object-oriented programming with finite elements. In terms of research vision, this scientist has identified several questions that still remain unanswered today, such as those concerning stabilised formulations, the analysis of the propagation of errors, and objects of artificial intelligence.
As far as teaching is concerned, Thomas Zimmermann been running a course on numerical methods at Master's level at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) since 1992. From 2006 onwards, he will be giving a course on the mechanics of solids in the context of the EPFL's cooperation with the University of Lausanne.
Thomas Zimmermann has had some forty publications in the reviews of technical committees, has made seven contributions to books or monographs, as well as to more than eighty scientific proceedings. He is the consultant editor of five scientific reviews, a reviewer for numerous journals, and he is a member of some twenty organising committees of international symposia. As an applicant or co-applicant, he was granted a dozen research projects with a total financial support of about 2.7 million Swiss francs for the period of 1988-2004.
Born in 1945, Dr Thomas Zimmermann gained his Diploma in Civil Engineering at the EPFL in 1970 and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences by the EPFL in 1979. With a grant from the Swiss National Fund, he pursued his post-doctoral research at the University of Berkeley from 1976 to 1977, and then at Caltech from 1977 to 1979. From 1979 to 1981, he worked for Motor Columbus as an expert on the dynamism of structures. He joined the EPFL at the former Institute of Energy Economics and Management in 1982. Since 1988, he has occupied the position of a member of the research staff and course leader at the Laboratory of Structural and Continuum Mechanics. In 1982, he also set up a software engineering firm, Zace Service, of which he is the managing director.