Dr. Martin Sadd is Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics at the University of Rhode Island. He received BS and MS degrees from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He began his academic career at Mississippi State University in 1971, and then joined the faculty at Rhode Island in 1979. For many years he has served as department Graduate Studies Director and was department Chair from 1991-2000. Dr. Sadd’s teaching background is in the area of solid mechanics including elasticity, continuum mechanics, wave propagation and computational methods, while his research has been involved with computational material modeling using finite, boundary and discrete element methods. He has authored over 70 publications, has given numerous presentations at national and international meetings and has recently authored a new text on elasticity theory. Professor Sadd has been an active player in establishing the dual MS and dual PhD programs with TU Braunschweig, and two off-campus graduate programs with local industries.