Ultrasonics of Periodic Structures

Nico Declercq is a Georgia Tech Faculty. He was born in Belgium and after graduating in (astro)physics from the Catholic University of Leuven he obtained his PhD degree in Engineering Physics from Ghent University, summa cum laude. Since 2006 he has a tenure track appointment as Assistant Professor with the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in Atlanta GA, USA, with primary duties at the Georgia Tech Lorraine Campus in Metz, France, at a joint International research laboratory between the French CNRS and Georgia Tech (UMI Georgia Tech – CNRS 2958).

Declercq's research aims to understand the interaction of sound and ultrasound with materials for nondestructive evaluation of materials. Studies involve the diffraction of sound at periodical structures such as phononic crystals, staircases, periodically corrugated surfaces and interfaces, multi-layered materials, acoustic barriers and the interaction of sound with fiber reinforced composites and other anisotropic materials. Investigations cover both linear and nonlinear interactions. One of the objectives is to understand complex situations where different phenomena take place simultaneously.

Currently his laboratory is extending its capabilities to perform research on micro-scale semi-conductor heterogeneous structures for the development of new models in materials science and for nondestructive testing.

Declercq was awarded the prestigious ICA Early Career Award in 2007, the International Dennis Gabor Award in 2006 and received a Sigma Xi young faculty award in 2008.

From time to time Declercq performs research on topics that are of particular relevance to a wider audience in acoustics. This has produced results that have been reported by Nature News, New Scientist and many newspapers around the globe, concerning acoustic effects at Epidaurus ( Greece) and Chichen Itza ( Mexico).

He teaches several graduate and undergraduate classes primarily to French and American students in Mechanical Engineering and guides researchers at the postdoc, PhD, graduate and undergraduate level.

Apart from many short scientific visits to laboratories in Russia, Poland, USA, India and Europe, Declercq has been a long term scientific visitor to the University of Mississippi (USA, with support from NATO) and the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan, with a Japanese fellowship)

Declercq’s ‘scientific fathers’ have been Oswald Leroy and Mack A. Breazeale.

In his spare time, Declercq is a philosopher with interests in ethics, history and religion. The time and efforts that are not devoted to his students are entirely devoted to his children.

The 20th International
Congress on Acoustics