Felix Weber: Thesis submission and farewell
Felix Weber has submitted his doctoral thesis on “Multiscale fracture modeling of amorphous materials: Bridging atomistic and continuum mechanical perspectives” and is now leaving the Capriccio group after being member for more than 7 years for a position in industry.
Felix joined the Capriccio as a student and handed in his bachelor thesis on “Investigation of the Influence of simulation box size and polymer chain length on molecular dynamics simulations of polystyrene” in October 2019. Felix continued his work on linking molecular and continuous viewpoints for amorphous materials and started as a doctoral researcher mid of 2022. One of his first highly challenging activities was the preparation of the on-site renewal review of the research training group GRK 2423 “FRASCAL – Fracture across Scales”: There, he gave an exciting and impressive presentation on scale-bridging simulations of various materials for an important audience comprising the scientific reviewers, the responsibles of the German Science Foundation, the president of FAU as well as FRASCAL’s principal advisors and (post-)doctoral researchers. All these efforts were honoured by an extension of FRASCAL for another 4.5 years. Thanks a lot to Felix for his long-term committment to FRASCAL!
Back in 2022, Felix initiated our still ongoing collaboration with Dr. Maxime Vassaux from the Institut de Physique de Rennes in Britanny, France: At the International Symposium on Polymer Nanocomposites (ISPN) at Lorient, France, Felix gave an inspiring talk about his research which was the starting point for our scientific exchange with Maxime. In this regard, Felix was able to visit Maxime for a research stay in Rennes in 2023, where he set up the first Capriccio simulations for silica glass. This eventually paved the way to his comprehensive fracture studies, which became an important part of his doctoral thesis.
Beyond this, Felix has been involved in numerous scientific and social activities as, e.g., organising FRASCAL seminars and retreats as well as the Capriccio retreats, playing in the LTM band, and contributing to Capriccio junior parties.
Felix has published seven peer-reviewed journal articles with three of them as first author in highly regarded scientific journals. Furthermore, he has six data publications complementing his journal articles.
It was a great pleasure to have Felix as a group member and we would like to thank him for his excellent contributions, both from a scientific as well as from a social point of view!
We wish him all the best for his future career!