Society for Experimental Mechanics

Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) is a professional organization for engineers and scientists studying the design and implementation of experiments to characterize materials, structures, and systems. Formed in 1943 as the Society for Experimental Stress Analysis (SESA), early work focused on methods such as photoelasticity and strain gages. Society historical records refer to the society as SESA through the 1984 Fall SESA meeting in Milwaukee, WI and start referring the society as SEM with the 1985 Spring SEM meeting in Las Vegas, NV. The society has expanded to include topics including modal analysis, digital image correlation, Split Hopkinson pressure bar, Residual stress, and biomaterials.