Miguel Molinos is an Assistant Professor of Mechanics at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). His research focuses on the mathematical and numerical modelling of the inelastic behaviour of structures, geostructures, and engineering materials (soils, concrete, steel, and rubber-like substances) using mesh-free techniques, as well as multiscale atomistic models based on Diffusive Molecular Dynamics (DMD).

Short Biography

He received his (4 years) B.Eng. degree in Civil Engineering from the Universidad de Sevilla, awarding an honours grade for his bachelor’s thesis in tsunami simulation. As an undergraduate student he did a part-time internship in Drops and Bubbles Technology, a spin- off of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Fluid Mechanics of the University of Seville where he worked in the simulation of bi-phasic flows with the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS-Fluent. In September 2016 he moved to Madrid to continue his studies in the School of Civil Engineering of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).

In 2018 he obtained his (2 years) M.Eng. degree in Civil Engineering finishing in the first decile of his promotion. Simultaneously, during a part-time internship in the Centre for Hydrographic Studies (CEDEX, Spanish Public Administration), he contributed to the implementation of a multi-thread GPU solver for Iber2D (CFD software). This internship provided him with important experience on practical engineering problems in a Technical Laboratory which is a important experience on practical engineering problems in a Technical Laboratory which is a reference centre of Spain in its domain. This practical experience complements well his solid theoretical background.

In September 2018 he started his predoctoral research career in Computational Mechanics in the Applied Mathematics Department of the Civil Engineering School of the UPM with the M2i group led by Professor Manuel Pastor. After the first period of training where he took courses to improve his programming skills (Introduction to R, Python for Engineers, and Programming in the GPU with CUDA), he started the implementation from scratch of an open- source code for mesh-free simulations (NL-PartSol, C). His research has been focused on the proposal, development and assessment of the Local maximum-entropy Material Point Method (LME-MPM) for dynamic, fracture mechanics, finite strains, and poromechanics problems. His contributions to the M2i group have been relevant. Indeed, he has overseen opening a new research line, modelling materials with complex behaviour using the LME-MPM method, instead of the classical SPH approach used so far. His research was financed between 2018 and 2020 by the Agustín de Betancourt foundation and in 2021 by the José Entrecanales Ibarra foundation.

In 2021 he was granted by the UPM to do a 5-month research stay at the University of California Berkeley (UCB) where he joined the research group of Professor Kenichi Soga (SRG). As a visiting scholar at UCB, he investigated two main topics: (i) the implementation of finite strain formulations in elastoplasticity in the framework of the LME-MPM method, and (ii) in the development of a Lagrangian formulation for fluid mechanics problems. During the stage in UCB, he contributed to enhancing their local code (CB-Geo, HPC C++) with the implementation of the Local maximum-entropy shape functions. It is worth mentioning that he continues his collaboration with the SRG group in Berkeley via periodic meetings. In August 2021 he returned to Spain to present a component-free formulation for finite strain poromechanics problems at the XVI International Conference of Computational Plasticity. Finally, in December of 2021, he defended his thesis entitled “The Local Maximum-Entropy Material Point Method” obtaining the qualification of cum laude and the recognition of international doctor.

After completing his PhD, he joined Professor Pilar Ariza’s research group at the Universidad de Sevilla to develop multiscale atomistic models (Juan de la Cierva-Formación, 2023–2024), including a research stay with Professor Michael Ortiz at Caltech. He is the main developer of SOLERA, a Diffusive Molecular Dynamics code for long-term atomistic transport phenomena. His medium-term goals include multiscale models for irradiated and hydrogen-embrittled materials, integrating continuum/fracture tools from his PhD with postdoctoral atomistic modelling.