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Prof Catalin Gales

Cătălin Bogdan Galeș got his PhD in 2004 with a thesis on "Initial boundary value problems in continuum mechanics" from the “Al.I. Cuza” University of Iași, where he is now associate professor. His research interests include Mechanics of particles and systems, Celestial mechanics, Perturbation theories, Hamiltonian and Lagrangian mechanics, Mechanics of deformable solids, Mixture effects, Saint-Venant’s principle, Uniqueness of solutions, Stability, Vibrations.
In collaboration with Prof. A. Celletti, he started an ample study of the dynamics of space debris by various tools related to dynamical systems, perturbation theory and Hamiltonian systems. Moreover, he has studied several mathematical models describing the mechanical behaviour of various media, such as: elastic and viscoelastic materials,  materials with microstructure, mixtures and mixtures with microstructure, piezoelectric and piezoelectromagnetic media.
Prof Gales is author, or co-author, of more than fifty publications in international journals and conference proceedings, and recipient of several national awards and research grants.

Dynamics of resonances in the space debris problem
The study of resonances within the space debris problem is of seminal importance in understanding the global dynamics in specific regions of the circumterrestrial space. Such investigations might also provide practical solutions in the assessment of space debris mitigation measures and in the development of maintenance and control strategies. By using analytical and numerical tools, we provide a description of the main dynamical features of two types of resonance affecting the orbital motion of a small body around the Earth, namely tesseral resonances and lunisolar secular resonances. Qualitative and quantitative studies of the mathematical models introduced to investigate the motion of space debris show the existence of various dynamical phenomena such as splitting and overlapping of resonances, chaotic variations of the orbital elements, bifurcations, variations of the amplitude of resonances with respect to various parameters etc. The importance of these phenomena in the evaluation of the long-term evolution of the orbital elements, in particular the semi-major axis, eccentricity and inclination, is discussed in various regions of the sky.
 
 
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