WSEPCM-2026

Born in Israel, Prof. (Emeritus since Jan 1, 2024) Wagner grew up in Belgium, where he earned a License in Physics from the Free University of Brussels (1975). He was awarded MSc (1977) and PhD (1983) degrees in Materials Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). He spent three years at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) as a postdoctoral associate and lecturer, before joining the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Materials Research (now the Department of Materials and Interfaces) in 1986. The author of 320scientific papers (>31,000 citations; h-index 82 – Google Scholar), his interests include the micromechanics of advanced composites and their interfaces, novel man-made materials such as carbon nanotubes and nanocomposites, and the mechanics of natural and nature-inspired structures. In 2000 Prof. Wagner was the elected Chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Composites in Ventura, California. In 2013 he was invited to present the Harvard-MIT Joint Nanomaterials Special Lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the Chairman of the COMPO2014 Nanocomposites and Biocomposites conference at the Weizmann Institute. Wagner was a Guest Professor at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg (Mercator Professorship, 2010 and 2011), the Ecole Centrale Paris (2010), the Centre de Recherches Paul Pascal (CRPP) and CNRS Pessac, Bordeaux (September 2009), ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, Annandale, New Jersey (2007), and at the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Golm-Potsdam (2005). He has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the 2023 ASC Outstanding Research Award (USA), the 2016 Medal of Excellence in Composite Materials (USA), the 2014 Landau Prize (Israel), and the 2014 Plantin Award (Belgium). He is an Elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and an Elected Member of the Academia Europaea, both since 2020.