Jim Lua

Jim Lua, President of GEM, received his Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics from Columbia University in 1989, M.S. in Mechanics and Material Sciences from Rutgers University in 1986, and B.S. in Structural Engineering from Tongji University in 1983. Dr. Lua has over thirty years of experience in conducting and directing research and development of computation fracture and damage mechanics, multiphysics coupling and simulation, defects characterization in advanced materials and structures, process simulation and optimization, and sustainment of metallic and composite structures. He has been actively involved in the development of novel computational tools for the prediction of aircraft structural loads due to buffet, tailoring of additive friction stir deposition based repair for improved fatigue performance, high fidelity strength and durability assessment of curved and tapered composite structure, multi-physics-based quenching simulation for large aluminum structures, and progressive damage assessment of bolted and bonded composite structures under static and fatigue loading. Before founding GEM, he served as Senior Principal Scientist at the Anteon Engineering Technology Center. He led the development of several simulation tools for the US Navy and DOD industries, including PROGROW for Bell Helicopter to perform probabilistic damage tolerance design of rotorcraft, PULSTR for the Navy Lab to perform the reliability-based ship hull design; and TMAT for the Navy Lab to perform a micromechanics-based thermal-mechanical analysis of a woven fabric unit cell.