Shelby Highsmith Jr., a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga., won the 2006 Student Paper Award sponsored by ASTM International Committee E08 on Fatigue and Fracture.  The Student Paper Award is given by the committee to encourage students to develop, present and publish high quality research papers in the field of fracture and subcritical growth. 

Highsmith lives in Atlanta, Ga.

Highsmith's paper, "New specimen designs for 3-D mixed-mode crack growth testing," focused on the study of the influence of shear modes on normal crack growth direction and modal transition by analyzing and testing two new specimen designs in order to generate 3-D mixities of Modes I, II and III simultaneously.  The paper included results of boundary element analyses and discussion of the relevance of the stress intensity mode distributions. 

As a graduate research assistant at Georgia Institute of Technology, Highsmith's career focus is on public and foreign policy as it pertains to science, technology and national/international security.  His graduate studies have included a minor in international affairs and he spent a year in the Sam Nunn Security Studies Fellowship.  In addition to being a student member of ASTM International, Highsmith is also a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Society of Materials. 

Highsmith graduated from the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind., in 1997 with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a B.A. in Philosophy.  He received his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2003 from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Release #7624