Stephen Timoshenko

Stephen P. Timoshenko or Stepan Prokofyevich Timoshenko ( _ua. Степан Тимошенко, _ru. Степан Прокофьевич Тимошенко, December 22 1878 – May 29 1972), is reputed to be the father of modern engineering mechanics. He wrote many of the seminal works in the areas of engineering mechanics, elasticity and strength of materials, many of which are still widely used today.

Biography

Timoshenko was born in the village of Shpotovka in Poltava Gubernia (currently in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine and part of Russian Empire at the time). He studied at a "real school" in Romny, Kharkov Gubernia (now in Sumy Oblast) from 1889 to 1896. In Romny his schoolmate and friend was future famous physicist Abram Ioffe. He continued his education towards a university degree at the St Petersburg Institute of the Railways. After graduating in 1901, he stayed on teaching in this same institution from 1901 to 1903 and then worked at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute under Viktor Kirpichyov 1903 - 1906. In 1905 he was sent for one year to the University of Göttingen where he worked under Ludwig Prandtl.

From 1907 to 1911 he was a professor at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where he did research in the earlier variant of the Finite Element Method of elastic calculations, the so called Rayleigh method. During those years he also pioneered work on Buckling, and published the first version of his famous "Strength of materials" textbook.

In 1911 he signed a protest against Minister for Education Kasso and was fired from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute.In 1911 he was awarded the Zhukovsky prize of the Russian Academy of Science that helped him survive after losing his job. He went to St Petersburg where he worked as a lecturer and then a Professor in the "Electrotechnical Instute" and the St Petersburg Institute of the Railways (1911 - 1917). During that time he developed the theory of elasticity and the theory of beam deflection, and continued to study buckling. In 1918 he returned to Kiev and assisted Vladimir Vernadsky in establishing the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences - the oldest academy among the Soviet republics other than Russia.

After Denikin troops had taken Kiev in 1919, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was closed and Timoshenko lost his job.In 1920, after the Bolshevik takeover of Kiev, Timoshenko emigrated to Yugoslavia, where he held professorship at the Zagreb Polytechnic Institute. He is remembered for delivering lectures in Russian while using as many words in Croatian as he could; the students were able to understand him well.

United States

In 1922 Timoshenko moved to the United States where he worked for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation from 1923 to 1927, after which he became a faculty professor in the University of Michigan where he created the first bachelor's and doctoral programs in engineering mechanics. His textbooks have been published in 36 languages. His first textbooks and papers were written in Russian; later in his life, he published mostly in English.

From 1936 onward he was a professor at Stanford University. In 1964 he moved to Wuppertal Western Germany.

In 1957 ASME established a medal named after Stephen Timoshenko; he became its first recipient. The Timoshenko Medal honors Stephen P. Timoshenko as the world-renowned authority in the field of mechanical engineering and it commemorates his contributions as author and teacher. The Timoshenko Medal is given annually for distinguished contributions in applied mechanics.

In addition to his textbooks, Timoshenko wrote two other books, "Engineering Education in Russia" and "As I Remember", the latter an autobiography first published in Russian in 1963 with its English translation appearing in 1968.

He died in 1972 and his ashes are buried in Palo Alto, California.

Publications

* "Applied Elasticity", with J. M. Lessells, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1925
* "Vibration Problems in Engineering", D. Van Nostrand Company, 1st Ed. 1928, 2nd Ed. 1937, 3rd Ed. 1955 (with D. H. Young)
* "Strength of Materials", Part I, Elementary Theory and Problems, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1st Ed. 1930, 2nd Ed. 1940, 3rd Ed. 1955
* "Strength of Materials", Part II, Advanced Theory and Problems, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1st Ed. 1930, 2nd Ed. 1941, 3rd Ed. 1956
* "Theory of Elasticity ", McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1st Ed. 1934, 2nd Ed. 1951 (with J. N. Goodier)
* "Elements of Strength of Materials", D. Van Nostrand Co., 1st Ed. 1935, 2nd Ed. 1940, 3rd Ed. 1949 (with G.H. MacCullough), 4th Ed. 1962 (with D.H. Young)
* "Theory of Elastic Stability", McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1st Ed. 1936, 2nd Ed. 1961 (with J. M. Gere)
* "Engineering Mechanics", with D.H. Young, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1st Ed. 1937, 2nd Ed. 1940, 3rd. Ed. 1951, 4th Ed. 1956
* "Theory of Plates and Shells ", McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1st Ed. 1940, 2nd Ed. 1959 (with S. Woinowsky-Krieger)
* "Theory of Structures", with D. H. Young, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1st Ed. 1945, 2nd Ed. 1965
* "Advanced Dynamics", with D. H. Young, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1948
* "History of The Strength of Materials", McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1953
* "Engineering Education in Russia", McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1959
* "As I Remember", D. Van Nostrand, 1968, ASIN: B000JOIJ7I
* "Mechanics of Materials ", with J. M. Gere, 1st edition, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1972

External links

* [http://www.300.years.spb.ru/eng/3_spb_3.html?id=81 "He was the first in the Pleiades of outstanding scientists"] . Biographical essay by Vladimir Tcheparukhin.
* [http://smitu.cef.spbstu.ru/timoshenko_en.htm S. P. Timoshenko] . Structural Mechanics and Theory of Elasticity Department of the Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnical University.
*ru icon [http://www.ihst.ru/projects/emigrants/timoshenko.htm Тимошенко Степан Прокофьевич] . "Timoshenko Stepan Prokofyevich". Biographical essay by V. Borisov.

References

*cite book| author=Stephen P. Timoshenko| title=As I Remember; The Autobiography of Stephen P. Timoshenko| publisher=Princeton, Van Nostrand| year=1968 | id=
*cite book| author=C. Richard Soderberg| title=Stephen P. Timoshenko, 1878-1972: A biographical memoir| publisher=The National Academies Press (National Academy of Sciences)| year=1982 | id=
* [http://www.nap.edu/books/0309032873/html/322.html Biographical Memoirs about Stephen P. Timoshenko (machine-read extracts)] . The National Academies Press (National Academy of Sciences)
*cite book| author=E. H. Mansfield and D. H. Young, "Stephen P. Timoshenko," in:| title=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society| publisher= vol. 19 (London: The Royal Society, 1973) pp. 679-94 | year= | id=
*cite book| title=Stephen Timoshenko |author=Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 19 | location= Toronto | publisher=University of Toronto| year=1993 | id=
*В. Борисов, [http://www.ihst.ru/projects/emigrants/timoshenko.htm Тимошенко Степан Прокофьевич] , [http://www.ihst.ru/ Institute of the History of the Natural Sciences and Technology] of the Russian Academy of Science