Professor J.F. Molinari is the director of the Computational Solid Mechanics Laboratory (http://lsms.epfl.ch) at EPFL, Switzerland. He holds an appointment in the Civil Engineering institute, which he directed from 2013 to 2017, and a joint appointment in the Materials Science institute. He started his tenure at EPFL in 2007, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2012. He is currently an elected member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation in Division 2 (Mathematics, Natural and Engineering Sciences).
 
 J.F. Molinari graduated from Caltech, USA, in 2001, with a M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics. He held professorships in several countries besides Switzerland, including the United States with a position in Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University (2000-2006), and France at Ecole Normale Supérieure Cachan in Mechanics (2005-2007), as well as a Teaching Associate position at the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris (2006-2009). He received an  ERC Starting Grant award in 2009.
 
 The work conducted by Prof. Molinari and his collaborators takes place at the frontier between traditional disciplines and covers several length scales from atomistic to macroscopic scales. Over the years, Professor Molinari and his group have been developing novel multiscale approaches for a seamless coupling across scales. The activities of the laboratory span the domains of damage mechanics of materials and structures, nano- and microstructural mechanical properties, and tribology. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Prof. Molinari is involved in teaching at EPFL at the Bachelor, Master and Doctoral levels.
 In the Fall semester, he is teaching "Continuum Mechanics" (BA 3), and "Selected Topics in Mechanics of Solids and Structures" (MAS 1+3, OPT), which includes an introduction to Wave Dynamics and to Fracture Mechanics. This Master class is taught in alternate years with “Advances in Computational Solid Mechanics” (MAS 1+3, OPT).
 In the Spring semester, Prof. Molinari is teaching "Finite Elements" (BA 6). 
 

M. Radiguet, D. S. Kammer, P. Gillet and J.-F. Molinari. Survival of Heterogeneous Stress Distributions Created by Precursory Slip at Frictional Interfaces, in Physical Review Letters, vol. 111, num. 16, p. 164302, 2013.
 
 D. S. Kammer, V. Yastrebov, G. Anciaux and J.-F. Molinari. The existence of a critical length scale in regularised friction., accepted in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2013.
 
 F. Gatuingt, L. Snozzi and J.-F. Molinari. Numerical determination of the tensile response and the dissipated fracture energy of concrete: role of the meso-structure and in?uence of the loading rate, accepted in International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 2013.
 
 Levy, S; Molinari, JF, Dynamic fragmentation of ceramics, signature of defects and scaling of fragment sizes, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, vol. 58, iss. 1, pp 12-26, 2010
 
 Anciaux, G; Molinari, JF, Contact mechanics at the nanoscale, a 3D multiscale approach, Int. Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 79, iss. 9, pp 1041-1067, 2009
 
 Molinari, JF; Molinari, A, A new methodology for ranking scientific institutions, Scientometrics, vol. 75, iss. 1, pp. 163-174, 2008 
 
 Warner, DH; Sansoz, F; Molinari, JF, Atomistic based continuum investigation of plastic deformation in nanocrystalline copper, Int. Journal of Plasticity, vol. 22, iss. 4, pp. 754-774, 2006 
 
 Zhou, FH; Molinari, JF; Ramesh, KT, Effects of material properties on the fragmentation of brittle materials, Int. Journal of Fracture, Vol. 139, Iss. 2, pp.169-196, 2006 
 
 Pei, L; Hyun, S; Molinari, JF, et al, Finite element modeling of elasto-plastic contact between rough surfaces, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, vol. 53, iss. 11, pp. 2385-2409, 2005 
 
 Sansoz, F; Molinari, JF, Mechanical behavior of Sigma tilt grain boundaries in nanoscale Cu and Al: A quasicontinuum study, Acta Materialia, vol. 53, issue 7, pp. 1931-1944, 2005 
 
 Hyun, S; Pei, L; Molinari, JF, et al, Finite-element analysis of contact between elastic self-affine surfaces, Physical Review E, vol. 70, issue 2, Article No 026117 Part: 2, 2004 
 
 Zhou, F; Molinari, JF, Dynamic crack propagation with cohesive elements: a methodology to address mesh dependency, Int. Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 59, iss. 1, pp. 1-24, 2004