Tusit Weerasooriya
U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
SEM Awards: SEM Fellow
Tusit Weerasooriya is the leader of the Multi-Scale Mechanics in the Soldier Protection Sciences Branch of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). He received his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Cambridge University as a Commonwealth Scholar and received his B.Sc. (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sri Lanka. Over the course of his professional career, Weerasooriya has investigated different topics in experimental mechanics at Cambridge University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force Material Research Laboratory (AFMRL) through contracts, and presently at the ARL. At Cambridge, Weerasooriya co-authored a seminal publication of fracture mechanism map concepts, using steels as examples. At AFMRL, he developed mini-computer, and then microcomputer hardware and software systems for real time computer-controlled studies of creep-fatigue interaction of aircraft engine materials, resulting in new creep-fatigue crack growth mechanism map concepts. After joining ARL in 1988, he began developing the Army’s high-rate research capabilities.
Weerasooriya developed novel experimental methods, while articulating and emphasizing the concept of Quantitative Visualization (QV), to understand dynamic deformation and failure behavior with associated micro-mechanisms for different classes of materials relevant to the U.S. Army, such as metals, ceramics, polymers, micron-scale fibers and thin films, as a function of quantifiable microstructural details. Recently, he has been exploring the rate dependent response of complex biological materials, such as bone and brain materials, from cellular to tissue length scales. Currently, he is developing Microstructure-inspired Mechanism-based (MIMB) rate dependent Hybrid-Experimental-Modeling-Computational (HEMC) concepts for material response during impact loading. These research pursuits resulted in Weerasooriya collectively having authored or co-authored over 100 articles (peer-reviewed articles including ASTM-STP book chapters, government reports, conference proceeding papers, and a Metal Handbook Desk edition chapter) and receiving the Department of the Army R&D Achievement for Technical Excellence in 2013. He is a founding member of the SEM Dynamic Behavior Materials track and regularly has been organizing and chairing numerous sessions at SEM.
Weerasooriya developed novel experimental methods, while articulating and emphasizing the concept of Quantitative Visualization (QV), to understand dynamic deformation and failure behavior with associated micro-mechanisms for different classes of materials relevant to the U.S. Army, such as metals, ceramics, polymers, micron-scale fibers and thin films, as a function of quantifiable microstructural details. Recently, he has been exploring the rate dependent response of complex biological materials, such as bone and brain materials, from cellular to tissue length scales. Currently, he is developing Microstructure-inspired Mechanism-based (MIMB) rate dependent Hybrid-Experimental-Modeling-Computational (HEMC) concepts for material response during impact loading. These research pursuits resulted in Weerasooriya collectively having authored or co-authored over 100 articles (peer-reviewed articles including ASTM-STP book chapters, government reports, conference proceeding papers, and a Metal Handbook Desk edition chapter) and receiving the Department of the Army R&D Achievement for Technical Excellence in 2013. He is a founding member of the SEM Dynamic Behavior Materials track and regularly has been organizing and chairing numerous sessions at SEM.
Is this your profile? Need to update it? Contact director@sem.org
Last Updated: 07/07/2022