Contact Mechanics and Relevant Problems

Holm Altenbach is a member of the International Research Center on Mathematics and Mechanics of Complex Systems (M&MoCS), Italy, and International Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM). In 1996, he was appointed as a full professor (Engineering Mechanics) at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, and since 2011, he has been a full professor at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. He graduated from Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1980 (diploma with a distinction), defended his Ph.D. and obtained his postgraduate degree (habilitation) from the same university in 1983 and 1987, respectively. His areas of scientific interest are theory of plates and shells with applications, continuum mechanics and material modeling, generalized media, sandwiches and laminates. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics/Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (the oldest journal in mechanics in Germany) and of Springer’s Advanced Structured Materials series. He is a member of the editorial board of several journals: among them Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Technische Mechanik, Mechanics of Composite Materials, and Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design. He was awarded the Polish Humboldt Prize in 2018. In November 2019, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in May 2021 as a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Since October 1st, 2022, he is retired. In 2024 he was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal of the RAS.

Avetik Varazdat Sahakyan is a head of Department of the Institute of Mechanics of the National Academy of Sciences. He graduated Yerevan State University in 1976 (diploma with a distinction), defended his Ph.D. in 1987 in the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and obtained his postgraduate degree (habilitation - Doctor of Sciences) from the Institute of Mechanics of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011. His areas of scientific interest are theory of elasticity and viscoelasticity, mixed boundary problems, mechanics of fracture, numerical methods, particularly Gauss type quadrature rules, for solving integral equations of various type: singular equations with Cauchy kernel or with weak singularities, as well hypersingular integral equations. He is a Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Mechanics, as well a member of the editorial board of Proceedings of Engineering Academy of Armenia and of the Journal of Samara State Technical University, Ser. Physical and Mathematical Sciences.