| Citation | James R Rice, whose field is solid mechanics, has contributed to fracture and plasticity in mechanical engineering and materials, and to earthquake source physics and crustal deformation modelling. Since 1981 he has been a professor at Harvard University, jointly in its Division of Applied Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He is the author or co-author of about 170 scientific papers, including major reviews on fracture mechanics and on earthquake source processes, and wrote the article on 'Mechanics of Solids' for the latest printing of Encyclopaedia Britannica. His contribution in earth sciences have been on the development of the mechanics of earthquake response on faults in relation to laboratory-based frictional properties, and on the modelling of stress accumulation in the crust as guided by seismic and geometic constraints. Currently, his research focusses on understanding spatial and temporal complexities of seismicity in terms of the dynamics of rupture propagation and the geometric disorder of fault zones. His current materials research addresses problems in crack dynamics, and also the understanding of brittle versus ductile response of metal crystals, and their interfaces with one another and with ceramics, in terms of atomistic and dislocation processes. Previously, he contributed to the mechanics of crack growth, especially in ductile metals, micromechanisms of ductile and creep rupture, constitutive equations in crystal plasticity, deformation localization into shear bands, poroelasticity of fluid-infiltrated solids, and computational methodology in solid mechanics.
Rice has made outstanding contributions to the fields with which he has been associated and is recognised as a leading international authority. He is a Member of the US Academy of Science and the US Academy of Engineering and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He epitomises excellence in applied science and engineering but his contributions cover a much wider spectrum than that defined simply by Sectional Committee 4. |