IUTAM Symposium on Global Bifurcation/Continuation in Nonlinear Elasticity: Modeling, Analysis and Computation

This symposium pertains to the study of mathematical methods in problems of nonlinear elasticity, continuum mechanics, and structural mechanics and is motivated by the many contributions of Timothy Healey in this area. Healey pioneered the use of group-theoretic methods in global bifurcation problems with symmetry. Along with Henry Simpson, he developed a nonlinear Fredholm degree to prove the existence of global solution continua in nonlinear elasticity.  Along with many co-workers, his approach based on symmetry and global bifurcation/continuation has illuminated the behavior of a wide-variety of physical systems, including rod structures, lipid-bilayer vesicles, phase transitions, wrinkling in thin sheets, creasing in soft solids, and brittle fracture. Recently he has established new existence theorems for thin, nonlinearly elastic shells undergoing large membrane strains.