Prof. Bernhard Schrefler

Dr. Bernhard Aribo Schrefler attended a Technical High School in Bolzano, finishing in 1962. He became member of the mountain rescue team and of the elite section of the Alpine Club of South Tirol. Subsequently, he authored a successful hiker’s guide “Hiking Paradise Meran”, which reached five editions. in 1962, he enrolled for engineering studies at the University of Padua, where he obtained in 1967, his master’s degree with summa cum laude. After his master’s degree, he served fifteen months of military service in the Italian Air Force and worked in a company designing cableways in the Alps for 6 months. He returned to the University of Padua as an Assistant Professor in 1969 where he became lecturer in 1973 and full professor for Structural Mechanics at the Faculty of Engineering in 1980.

In 1975, Schrefler strted his research on the subsidence of Venice, and went to the University College of Swansea where he applied for the first time the theory of Biot to subsidence modelling. Since there were no doctoral schools in Italy at that time, in 1979, he applied for part time Ph.D. studies at the University Colege of Swansea and completed his Ph.D. in 1984. In 1992, he obtained a D.Sc. degree from the University of Wales.

In 2003, Schrefler realized that crack tip advancement in hydraulic fracturing is not smooth, but stepwise with pressure oscillations. Tis fact was unknown in the mechanics community where analytical and numerical solutions featured smooth behaviour. Subsequently, he was able to explain this behaviour by invoking self-organization of rupture.

In 2013, Schrefler retired from University of Padua and was then nominated Professor Emeritus. He continues research at IAS and HMRI.

Prof. Bernhard Schrefler, Receiving the Fray International Sustainability Award from Dr. Florian Kongoli at FLOGEN SIPS 2019

Prof. Bernhard Schrefler, Delivering his acceptance speech to Dr. Florian Kongoli during the FLOGEN SIPS 2019 ceremony

Dr. Florian Kongoli congratulating Prof. Bernhard Schrefler on his award at FLOGEN SIPS 2019

Dr. Florian Kongoli presenting the FLOGEN SIPS 2019 Fray International Sustainability Award to Bernhard Schrefler

The video Award Ceremony of Prof Bernhard Schrefler at SIPS 2019. Dr Florian Kongoli presides upon the official ceremony

FLOGEN SIPS 2019 Awardees: Prof. Bernhard A. Schrefler in conversation with Dr Florian Kongoli

Full biography: https://www.flogen.org/sips2019/pdf/Bernhard_Schrefler_Bio.pdf