The last two seminars of the ESIS Technical Committee on Micromechanisms (TC2) were held in Alexandroupolis, Greece, in August 2006, and in Brno, Czech Republic in June 2007, respectively.  Selected contributions to these meetings were published as the special issue of the Engineering Fracture Mechanics, entitled “Microstructurally Aided Fracture Mechanisms” (in print). Guest editors of that issue are Jaroslav Pokluda (Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic) and Reinhard Pippan (Institute of Materials Science, Leoben, Austria). The ordering of 12 accepted papers follows the atomistic-mesoscopic-continuum-multiscale scheme. The papers demonstrate a power of microstructurally-aided models in the development of engineering fracture mechanics particularly towards a deeper insight into its physical base.
Next TC2 meetings will take place in Brno during the 17th European Conference on Fracture, September 2-5, 2008, and in Leoben, March-April 2009. The deadline for a submission of papers for the meeting in Brno has already passed. However, the call for papers for the Leoben meeting will be announced only in autumn 2008. All potential participants are cordially invited.

                            PROF. JAROSLAV POKLUDA