Matthew Purvance, PhD

I am a numerical modeling expert specializing in creating software solutions targeting geomechanical analyses. I founded Simtra Dynamics in 2026 to focus on GPU acceleration of explicit dynamics numerical schemes.

Prior to founding Simtra Dynamics, I spent my career at Itasca Consulting Group where I was the Software Lead for the Particle Flow Code (PFC). In that role I developed, documented, deployed, and supported PFC. I developed numerous tools used by the suite of Itasca software packages, including: MPI support, the DFN Logic, rigid blocks, zone joints in FLAC3D, Python integration, the Version 9 UI, the Material Point Method (MPM) code MPAC (now MPOINT), the documentation system, and inline help facilities. While at Itasca I directed development of GPU acceleration of explicit numerical schemes.

I received a PhD in Geophysics, specializing in Seismology, from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2005. There I modeled the rocking and overturning responses of precariously balanced rocks with Dr. James Brune and Dr. Rasool Anooshehpoor, developing tools to predict fragilities and integrating those fragilities with Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analyses. From 2005 to 2009, I continued as a postdoctoral scholar at UNR, after which I joined Itasca Consulting Group.

Corné Coetzee, PhD

I have extensive physical and numerical modeling experience, focused primarily on granular flows. I am an expert in both the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Material Point Method (MPM). I have implemented and successfully utilized a number of DEM constitutive models for research and industrial applications using the Particle Flow Code (PFC). I have also been involved in the creation of the MPM code MPAC, now MPOINT, at Itasca Consulting Group.

After receiving a PhD from Stellenbosch University in 2003, I continued at Stellenbosch as a Senior Lecturer (2005-2022), Associate Professor (2017-2021) and am now a tenured Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2021-present). My PhD dissertation involved the development of an MPM code tailored for the simulation of granular flows. I transitioned to using DEM in research in 2005, returning to MPM recently, and co-founding Simtra Dynamics in 2026.