Congratulations to Irina Kalashnikova and to Ajay Rajasekharan for winning and being a finalist of the 20th Annual Melosh Medal Competition, respectively.

The Robert J. Melosh Medal Competition for the Best Student Paper in Finite Element Analysis was inaugurated by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University in 1989, to honor Professor Melosh for his pioneering work on the finite element method and for his dedication to research, teaching, and service during his tenure at Duke University.

While a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, Professor Farhat met Professor Melosh during his sabbatical leave, enrolled in two finite element courses he taught there, and co-wrote with him the paper entitled "Scelernomic Analysis of Structures Considering Connection Slip" which appeared in Finite Element in Analysis and Design, Vol. 2, pp. 241-247.

Some photos of Irina receiving the Award with Ajay in the background