M2i PhD researcher T.W.J. (Tom) de Geus has been awarded an NWO Rubicon grant. The grant will enable him to spend two years at EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, to conduct his post-doctoral research project titled ‘Group-think in friction: the collective behavior of micro-contacts’.

Rubicon offers talented researchers who have completed their doctorates in the past year the chance to gain experience at a top research institution outside the Netherlands.

Recently Tom de Geus of the Department of Mechanical Engineering gained his PhD cum laude. He defended his PhD thesis, titled ‘From damage to fracture, from micro to macro: a systematic study of ductile fracture in multi-phase microstructures’, in May.

The PhD thesis of Tom de Geus is about obtaining insights in the mechanical behavior, especially around fracture, of multi-phase materials. His promotor is professor Marc Geers, professor in Mechanics of Materials  at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of TU Eindhoven.