This book is dedicated to Professor Cristóvão Manuel Mota Soares, late Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, deceased on July 3, 2025.

In this book, many of his colleagues and friends contributed their latest insights to analytical, numerical, and machine-learning-based approaches for a better understanding of composite materials, laminated shells, functionally graded structures, and nano-reinforced beams. The book spans classical mechanics, higher-order theories, meshless and finite-element formulations, and emerging data-driven methods such as physics-informed neural networks and extreme learning machines.

All of these impressive contributions underline the great impact that Cristóvão Manuel Mota Soares had on the development of mechanics.

Autorentext

Holm Altenbach is a member of the International Research Center on Mathematics and Mechanics of Complex Systems (M&MoCS), Italy, and International Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM). In 1996, he was appointed as a full professor (Engineering Mechanics) at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, and since 2011, he has been a full professor at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. He graduated from Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1980 (diploma with a distinction), defended his Ph.D. and obtained his postgraduate degree (habilitation) from the same university in 1983 and 1987, respectively. His areas of scientific interest are theory of plates and shells with applications, continuum mechanics and material modeling, generalized media, sandwiches and laminates. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics/Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (the oldest journal in mechanics in Germany) and of Springer's Advanced Structured Materials series. He is a member of the editorial board of several journals: among them Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Technische Mechanik, Mechanics of Composite Materials, and Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design. He was awarded the Polish Humboldt Prize in 2018. In November 2019, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in May 2021 as a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Since October 1st, 2022, he is retired. In 2024 he was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal of the RAS.

Nicholas Fantuzzi is Associate Professor for Structural Mechanics. MSc in Civil Engineering and PhD in Structural Engineering and Hydraulics from University of Bologna. He holds the Italian National Academic Qualification as Full Professor in Mechanics of Solids and Structures. His research interests are mechanics of solids and structures, fracture mechanics, computational mechanics applied to composite materials and structures. He has been visiting professor at Tsinghua University, City University of Hong Kong, Chongqing University and University of Rijeka. Winner of 3 international awards. Author of more than 200 international peer reviewed journal papers and more than 150 abstracts in national and international conferences. He also serves as Co-Editor in Chief of the journal "Composite Structures". António Joaquim Mendes Ferreira is the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. He is a specialist in Mechanical Engineering and Applied mathematics, and more specifically in numerical methods, radial basis functions, finite element methods, composite materials, meshless methods.