| Citation | Professor Robert O. Ritchie is recognized throughout the world for his seminal contributions to the materials science and mechanistic understanding of the fracture/fatigue failure of both engineering and biological materials. He has made fundamental and lasting contributions to the micromechanical modelling of cleavage fracture and hydrogen-induced cracking, to the role of microstructure in influencing the growth of fatigue cracks, in ceramics, intermetallics, polymers and composites as well as metals, to the development of bio-inspired lightweight structural materials, and to the understanding of the multiple length-scale origins of the fracture resistance of bone and their biological degradation. |