Romesh Batra


Romesh C. Batra is a University Distinguished Professor and Clifton C. Garvin Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia. He was born in Village Dherowal, Punjab, India. His family migrated from Dherowal to Shahabad Markanda, Haryana, India after India became an independent country.

Early life and education

He earned his B.Sc., M.A. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, respectively, in 1968, ’69 and ‘72 from Thapar University, University of Waterloo and the Johns Hopkins University. His Ph.D. degree was under the tutelage of the eminent elastician, Professor J. L. Ericksen. After a year of Post-doctoral experience with Professor Ericksen at the JHU and another year with Professor Mark Levinson at the McMaster University, Canada, he joined the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, USA as a visiting assistant professor in 1974 and was promoted to full professor in 1981. He joined Virginia Tech as the Clifton C. Garvin Professor in 1994, and was honored as a University Distinguished Professor in 2019.

Teaching and research

Dr. Batra has been teaching courses on the Finite Element Method, Continuum Mechanics and Nonlinear Elasticity to M.Sc. and Ph.D. students since 1974. His lectures for the 1st graduate level course on Continuum Mechanics are available on youtube.com. Nearly a dozen out of his 40 former Ph.D. students hold faculty positions in India, China, Chile, Taiwan, S. Korea, France, Canada and the USA. Several other former Ph.D. students hold leadership positions in civilian industries and research laboratories.
Graduate Student Mentoring: His Ph.D. students are listed on the website: http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=105522
Research Areas: His research group has worked in several areas of applied mechanics such as adiabatic shear bands, composite structures, functionally graded materials/structures, nanostructures, smart materials/structures, micro-electro-mechanical systems, and computational mechanics including the finite element and meshless methods.
Software Development: Dr. Batra’s group has developed software based on the finite element and meshless methods for analyzing contact problems for rubber-covered rolls, adiabatic shear bands, crack propagation in functionally graded materials, damage evolution in fiber-reinforced laminated composites, and transient deformations of structures made of thermo-elasto-visco-plastic materials and fiber-reinforced composites.
Professional Affiliations: He is an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics, American Society of Engineering Education, Society of Engineering Science, and the US Association of Computational Mechanics. He is a founder and editor of the journal: Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids
Professional Service: He served for two 5-year terms on the National Research Council Panels to review and advise areas of research in the Warhead Mechanics and the Lethality/Survivability Directorates of the Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, MD, USA; for one year as President of the Society of Engineering Science; for 3 years as Secretary of the American Academy of Mechanics; and for 5 years as Chair of the ASME Elasticity Committee.
Recognitions:
  • As of 27 June 2021, his works have received more than 21,000 citations with an H-index of 76 on Google .
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers Honorary
  • Engineering Science '
Belytschko Medal from the US Association of Computational Mechanics for his work on adiabatic shear bands and MSPH/SSPH meshless methods