Mechanics: From Theory to Computation : Essays in Honor of Juan-Carlos Simo

Starting in 1996, a sequence of articles appeared in the Journal of Nonlinear Science dedicated to the memory of one of its original editors, Juan-Carlos Simo, Applied Me- chanics, Stanford University. Sadly, Juan-Carlos passed away at an early age in 1994. We lost a brilliant colleague and a wonderful person. These articles are collected in the present volume. Many of them are updated and corrected especially for this occasion. These essays are in areas of scientific interest of Juan-Carlos, including mechanics (particles, rigid bodies, fluids, elasticity, plastic- ity, etc.), geometry, applied dynamics, and, of course, computation. His interests were extremely broad-he did not see boundaries between computation, mathematics, me- chanics, and dynamics, and, in that sense, he ideally reflected the spirit of the journal and many of the most exciting areas of current scientific interest. Juan-Carlos was one of those select and gifted people who could cross interdisci- plinary boundaries with extremely high quality and productive interactions of lasting value. His contributions, ranging from concrete engineering problems to fundamental mathematical theorems in geometric mechanics, are remarkable. In current conferences as well as in scientific books and articles, and over a wide range of subjects, one frequently hears how his ideas as well as specific results are often used and quoted-this is one indication of just how profound and fundamental his work has impacted the community.