UCT scholar makes an impact

World-acclaimed: Prof Gerald Nurick was honoured for his work in the fields of impact and blast engineering.

Professor Gerald Nurick's decades-long contribution to the fields of impact and blast engineering was acknowledged at a recent international conference.

Three sessions were organised in Nurick's honour at the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) Fall conference, IMPLAST 2010, in Rhode Island, US, in October, where he delivered the opening plenary address.

Nurick, of the Blast Impact and Survivability Research Unit (BISRU) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UCT, is an internationally-acclaimed authority in blast mitigation, with a career spanning 30 years.

The unit strives to reduce risk of injury and save lives through fundamental principles of science and engineering, and uses experimental, analytical and computational tools and techniques to understand the mechanics and dynamics of blast and impact loads.

Nurick attributes BISRU's successes to the group of cutting-edge researchers in the unit, as well as UCT's global standing.