The Helsinki University of Technology is the largest of its kind in Finland, and has an enrolment of about 12000 including graduate students. The HUT partner is located both at the Laboratory of Physics and at a National Center of Excellence (COMP) for research into computational nanoscience. This center is headed by academy professor Risto Nieminen, and has almost 60 members from staff to PhD students. The participating group “Complex Systems and Materials” is headed by Mikko Alava. It is the only group in complex materials in Finland, and the leading one in the application of complex systems ideas to materials science in the Nordic countries. Currently, the group has six PhD students and several undergraduates. The group has extensive collaborations with other complex systems and complex materials groups in Finland, Europe, and in the US. A particularly important aspect has been the application of statistical physics and complexity to the materials science of paper. The experimental activity at HUT will be done partly in collaboration with KCL, the Finnish pulp and paper industry research institute (with 150 employees) located at the HUT campus. This gives access to testing a variety of model materials with tunable properties, and allows for possible applications of results.

Team Leader: The team leader Dr. Mikko Alava is a docent at HUT since 1997 and has worked extensively on the applications of statistical physics to disordered systems and materials and on other cross-disciplinary topics. He has published more then 100 articles in international journals of the highest standing.

Additional participants:

Jari Rosti: PhD student at the CSM group. He works on both experiments and simulations of fracture in two-dimensional systems, with the major example being paper. The experimental work centers around creep fracture.

Lasse Laurson: PhD student at the CSM group. His research concentrates on the physics of avalanching systems. A particular application is discrete crystal plasticity, and its universal features.

Juha Koivisto: research student working on creep fracture. The main topics have been fracture line creep in paper peeling, an example of elastic line dynamics, and the advancement of cracks in creep.