Jonathan Leung

Jonathan Leung serves as an Assistant Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, where he is affiliated with the School of Engineering Sciences within the Vehicle Engineering department. His primary research focus is in the Rail Vehicles unit, where he develops computational tools to predict material fatigue and damage behavior under extreme conditions.

Dr. Leung earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering and MSc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. His educational background provides the foundation for his expertise in analyzing complex material behaviors under demanding operational environments.

His research specializes in understanding and predicting fatigue and damage behavior of engineering materials under extreme conditions and harsh environments. By developing custom computational tools that capture multi-physics mechanisms for damage formation and integrating them into system-level fatigue prediction tools, he increases the ability to predict the influence of various loading, material, and operational factors at multiple length scales. His current work focuses on predicting crack initiation in rails under rolling contact loading by integrating multibody simulations with finite element methods. This research has significant applications in rail transportation, green energy systems, electronic packaging, additive manufacturing, and machinery components.

Dr. Leung's research is funded by multiple industry partners including TIMKEN Bearings, Caterpillar, and Magna Industries, as well as government funding agencies. His work bridges theoretical modeling with practical engineering applications, particularly in improving the accuracy of rolling contact fatigue crack initiation prediction and elucidating microstructural damage mechanisms that cause subsurface microstructural transformations in high-strength steels.

As an educator, Dr. Leung serves as examiner for the Degree project in rail vehicle technology (advanced level, SD231X) and teaches Rail Vehicle Dynamics (SD2313) and Rail Vehicle Technology (SD2307). His teaching directly complements his research expertise in vehicle engineering with particular emphasis on rail systems.