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Nicolas Moës is an expert in numerical mechanics and focuses on the modelling of crack propagation, damage mechanics and contact. He is particularly well known for having co-invented the extended finite element method (X-FEM), a mathematical approach that allows cracks to be propagated on a grid, called a finite element mesh, which is independent of the crack path. Its advantage: it no longer requires the mesh to be changed during propagation.

Recently, Nicolas Moës has enriched his approach with research in theoretical mechanics, in order to make numerical models even more efficient. For example, he has devised a model to better account for the birth of a crack.

In 2014, he was awarded the CNRS silver medal.

After his Engineering Degree at the University of Liège in Belgium in 1992, Jean-François Remacle obtained in 1997 a Ph.D. from the same University. He then spent two years at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal as a post-doctoral fellow of Prof. F. Trochu, followed by three years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the research team of Prof. M. Shephard (one year as research associate followed by two years as research assistant professor).

It was during his stay at Rensselaer that Pr. Remacle started to work closely with Mark Shephard on mesh generation. Pr. Shephard’s seminal work on mesh generation is one of the most important contributions ever. It was also during that stay that Pr. Remacle started the development of Gmsh, the open source mesh generator.

After these five years in Northern America, Jean-François Remacle joined the Université catholique de Louvain in 2002 as an assistant Professor. He then became Associate Professor in 2005 and Full Professor in 2012. In the following years of his return to Europe, Pr. Remacle dedicated a large part of his research to mesh generation.

Nicolas Chevaugeon currently works at the Research Laboratory of Civil Engineering and Mechanics , Ecole Centrale de Nantes. He does research in Computational Mechanics. Is particularly involved in numerical modelling of damage fracture and contact problems.

Jonathan Lambrechts obtained his phd “Finite element methods for coast flows: Application to the Great Barrier Reef” in the SLIM project at the University catholique de Louvain .
He is now working as research engineer for the Institute of Mechanics, Material and Civil Engineering in the same university. His finite element coastal ocean modeling (SLIM) and multiscale fluid-particle modeling (Migflow) and mesh generation (gmsh, hextreme) .

Benoît Lé graduated with a M. Sc. in computational Mechanics and a PhD from Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France. His PhD works was about modelling reinforced concrete, using the eXtended Finite Element method (X-FEM) for the steel reinforcements, and the Thick Level Set approach to fracture (TLS) for the concrete. He is now a research engineer at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes. His works focus on damage and fracture mechanics. In particular, he is involved in the implementation of the TLS in the finite element code eXlibris, developped at the Research Institute of Civil Engineering and Mechanics (GeM).