Stress-Induced Local Phase Transformations Near Cracks and Dislocations: The Field-Theoretical Approach

Alexei Boulbitch (born 19 January 1958) graduated from Rostov State University, USSR (now Southern Federal University, Russia), in 1980 and earned his PhD in Solid State Physics there in 1988. He completed his habilitation in Theoretical Biophysics at the Technical University of Munich (Germany) in 2001. Starting his career at the Institute for Physics in Rostov-on-Don (USSR), he developed a field-theoretical approach to stress-induced phase transitions and worked on liquid crystals, domain walls, and hydrogen in metals. From 1990 to 1992, he was a visiting scientist in Amiens, France, focusing on liquid crystals. In 1995, he joined the Technical University of Munich, working on biophysics. He published about 60 scientific papers. In 2005, he moved to industry, joining R&D at IEE S.A. (Luxembourg), specializing in sensorics. There he filed seven patent families. From 2014 to 2017, he also lectured on polymers and soft matter at the University of Luxembourg. He retired in 2023, still working on stress-induced phase transformations. Alexander L. Korzhenevskii (born 30 April 1951) graduated from Leningrad State University (now St. Petersburg State University, Russia) in 1974. He earned his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics in 1979 and his Habilitation in Physico-mathematical sciences in 1992, both at the Ioffe Institute. From 1974 to 1994, he worked at the Electrotechnical Engineering Institute (St. Petersburg), where he developed a field-theoretical approach to stress-induced phase transitions at dislocations, focusing on their impact on the thermodynamic and optical properties of crystals. In 1994, he joined the Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg), where he continues to work. From 1993 to 2015, he was a visiting scientist at the University of Munich, Ruhr University Bochum, and the University of Düsseldorf in Germany. He is currently active in applying field-theoretical methods to dislocations and interfaces in solids, as well as in the theory of solidification in dilute alloys.