Israel Garcia

Israel Garcia is an Aeronautical Engineer (Universidad de Sevilla, 2009-2014). He did the last year of this degree in the Grande École Supaéro in Toulouse, now ISAE-Supaéro, the main school of aeronautical engineering in France, and one of the most prestigious in Europe. As part of his formation in Supaéro, he developed his final thesis in Intespace, the main center for testing spacecrafts in Europe. His thesis focused on the research and development tasks to integrate the operational modal analysis as part of the portfolio of the company. Given the thesis was developed in the company facilities and under the supervision of engineers of the company, he had the first contact with the research and its application to an industrial context.

Subsequently, he was granted in 2009 with a FPU scholarship to develop his PhD thesis at the Universidad de Sevilla. The FPU grant is the most competitive PhD grant in Spain, only 13 grants for Mechanical Engineering were given in 2009. As part of the doctoral studies, he obtained a Msc. in Advanced Design on Mechanical Engineering in 2011, obtaining the top score student. In 2014, he presented his PhD thesis entitled Crack initiation in composites at micro and meso scales. Applications and development of finite fracture mechanics, advised by Prof. Vladislav Mantič; obtaining the maximum mark (Sobresaliente Cum Laude), the International mention, and the Outstanding Doctorate Award (Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado).

During his PhD thesis, he used a multi-approach strategy, investigating the crack initaition in composites at micro and meso scales, by the combination of a theoretical, numerical and experimental approach. This was possible because he combined the broad experimental experience of his hosting laboratory with the experience of top level research groups in theoretical and computational fracture mechanics through two research stays: The theoretical part was enhanced by his research stay of 3 months in Sorbonne Université, collaborating with Prof. Dominique Leguillon, worldwide reference in theoretical crack initiation. The computational aspect was especially strengthened during his research stay in the Cornell Fracture Group, directed by Prof. Ingraffea, worldwide reference on computational fracture mechanics. This multi-approach strategy and the formation associated, which was also followed during his Postdoc period, makes him able to use autonomously the most advanced theoretical, computational and experimental techniques related with fracture mechanics. This makes him an excellent profile to coordinate a team within a research project.

He published a total of 21 articles in JCR journals. These articles were published in the main international journals in fracture mechanics and composite materials. These publications had a high impact, as demonstrated by the fact that his h-index is 8. It means that 8 of these 14 publications already have at least 8 cites, despite many of them are very recent. The results of his research have also been disseminated in other articles and more than 40 international and national conferences. In addition, He has participated in 9 research projects and 5 transfer contracts. Currently, He is an Associate Professor at the Universidad de Sevilla and accredited as “Profesor Titular de Universidad” since 2020. Previously, he was Assist. Professor at the Univ. de Cádiz (2014-2016) and Univ. de Sevilla (2016-2020)