About two types of microstructures adapted to heat evacuation and elastic stress: snow flakes and quasi-crystals

Abstract

I first met Constantine Dafermos in August 1974, at a meeting at Brown University, where I was invited because my former advisor (Jacques-Louis LIONS) could not come, and he had proposed my name. I was happily surprised that Constantine greeted me as if he knew me well, and since for many years now I have considered him as if he was an older brother, I wonder when this feeling started. I do not remember when I told him that my paternal grandmother (Cecilia) had a Greek passport, which was not uncommon for Christian families in Syria, since most of them followed the Greek Orthodox rite, and I now wonder if it played a role in the divorce of my grandparents, after my grandfather (Elias) switched to a more evangelical faith, and became a little excessive about religion: my father (Georges) once mentioned that when he had some argument with his father and he wanted to annoy him, he went to the Sunday office at the Greek Orthodox church. Becoming friend with Constantine was natural for human reasons, but also for scientific reasons.