Professor Michael Ortiz, head of the UNESCO Chair in Numerical Methods in Engineering at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and CIMNE, has this September been elected a Fellow of the International Society of Materials Modeling (ISMM). The Fellowship is one of the Society’s highest honours, recognising scientific excellence and contributions to the international materials modelling community.
The Society’s Board of Directors, comprising ten researchers from institutions across Europe, Asia and North America, selected Professor Ortiz for his “outstanding and sustained contributions to materials modelling”, alongside his service, leadership, mentorship and efforts to strengthen international scientific collaboration.
With this distinction, Ortiz joins the inaugural class of ISMM Fellows, a distinction limited to 100 living members worldwide, excluding Senior Fellows.
Professor Ortiz’s expertise in developing computational methods and connecting different approaches to materials research, along with his longstanding involvement in scientific leadership and training, adds to the Society’s research and community-building efforts.
Established in 2023, ISMM promotes the development and application of materials modelling and simulation, bringing together researchers from academia, industry and public research institutions. It fosters scientific exchange across disciplines such as computational mechanics, materials science, physics, and applied mathematics, with particular emphasis on understanding material behaviour across different spatial and temporal scales.
The Society emerged from the International Conference on Multiscale Materials Modeling (MMM), launched in 2002, which remains its flagship scientific event. Its next edition, MMM12, will take place in Jeju, South Korea, from 8 to 13 November 2026, where the Society is expected to recognise its newly elected Fellows.
Ortiz is the Frank and Ora Lee Marble Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). His academic career has included positions at Brown University and Stanford University, as well as contributions to scientific advisory bodies and the supervision of numerous doctoral and postdoctoral researchers. Among his distinctions are the Timoshenko Medal (2015), the John von Neumann Medal (2019) and election to the US National Academy of Engineering (2013).
“Professor Ortiz has made significant contributions to computational mechanics over several decades, combining scientific rigour with a strong commitment to mentoring researchers and fostering international collaboration,” said CIMNE’s General Director, Professor Javier Bonet. “We warmly congratulate him on this well-deserved distinction.”
The UNESCO Chair at CIMNE and UPC
Established in 1989, the UNESCO Chair in Numerical Methods in Engineering at CIMNE and UPC was the first UNESCO Chair dedicated to advancing numerical methods in engineering. It promotes international cooperation in research, education and knowledge transfer, with particular attention to scientific capacity-building in lower-income countries.
Professor Ortiz assumed leadership of the Chair in January 2025, succeeding Professor Jacques Périaux. His work focuses on data-enhanced simulation and quantum computational mechanics, two research areas through which the Chair seeks to advance numerical methods while strengthening international collaboration and scientific training.
