When
C. F. Chen Memorial Lecture
Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 4:00 p.m., MST (Arizona)
AME S202
The University of Arizona Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) will host the Tony Chen Memorial Lecture on Thursday, March 26, honoring the late Chuan F. "Tony" Chen, professor emeritus and former department head.
The memorial will take place in Room AME S202, with the lecture beginning at 4:00 p.m., followed by a reception from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. outside the lecture hall.
Faculty, students, alumni and members of the engineering community are invited to attend this special event celebrating Chen's life and remind us of his lasting impact on the university and the field of engineering.
Can’t make it in person? Join us via Zoom.
For more information, contact the AME department.
Guest Speaker
Guillermo Terrones
Scientist 5
Los Alamos National Laboratory
"From Experiments to Simulations: Understanding the Dynamic Behavior of Metals"
Abstract
Nuclear weapons physics involves extreme pressures and very fast events. Under these conditions, materials behave differently than in everyday engineering, and both the governing equations and the material response are strongly nonlinear. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Stockpile Stewardship depends on being able to model this behavior using experiments, data and high-performance computing. Confidence in these simulations comes from a repeatable process: measure, model, simulate, validate and predict.
In this talk, Guillermo Terrones will walk through that workflow using dynamic-loading research as an example. He will first contrast quasi-static and dynamic loading to show why inertia, wave propagation and large deformation change the physics and the modeling assumptions. Terrones will then introduce two key diagnostics, proton radiography (pRad) and photonic Doppler velocimetry (PDV), and show two examples of pRad focused experiments: shock-wave structure in an energetic material and Rayleigh–Taylor instability growth in metals. Finally, he will describe how these measurements are used to test multiphysics hydrocodes (e.g., PAGOSA), including the roles of the equation of state and strength models, and why high-performance computing is needed for resolution and fidelity. The goal is to show how we build trust in simulations that must be used for reliable prediction.
Biosketch
Guillermo Terrones is a Scientist 5 at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he has worked since 2002 in the Theoretical Design Division's Safety and Surety area. He earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona, advised by professor C. F. Chen, specializing in hydrodynamic stability, and previously worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on experimental and computational studies of particle-laden turbulent flows and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics.
At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Terrones has focused on understanding material behavior under extreme, rapidly evolving conditions by combining experiments, diagnostics, three-dimensional simulations and high-performance computing. His work has supported major experimental efforts using proton radiography (pRad) and the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) facility, investigating phenomena such as ejecta formation, burn propagation and instability growth relevant to safety and primary physics. He has served in leading physics roles on several high-visibility efforts, contributed to multiple key milestones, and more recently was the Physics Lead for Los Alamos National Laboratory's Phase 1 assessment of a potential new warhead (W93), the laboratory's first such assessment in more than three decades. He currently serves as the W93 Safety Lead during Phase 2.
A consistent theme of Terrones's career is building trust in predictive simulations through a repeatable workflow, measure, model, simulate, validate, and predict. This theme anchors his C. F. Chen Memorial Lecture, "From Experiments to Simulations: Understanding the Dynamic Behavior of Metals," which highlights how dynamic-loading experiments and modern diagnostics are used to test and improve multiphysics hydrocodes for reliable prediction.
For more information on the C. F. Chen Memorial Lecture Series, visit the webpage.