Stephen Timoshenko

1
Stephen Timoshenko
This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Prokopovych and the family name is Tymoshenko.
Stephen Tymoshenko
Born
Stepan Prokopovych Tymoshenko
December 22, 1878
Shpotivka, Russian Empire (now Sumy Oblast, Ukraine)
Died May 29, 1972 (aged93)
Wuppertal, Germany
Nationality Russian Empire
United States
Fields Engineering Mechanics
Institutions Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, University of Michigan, Stanford University
Alma mater St.Petersburg Ways of Communication Institute
Doctoral students James N. Goodier
Egor Popov
Knownfor Timoshenko beam theory
Notable awards Louis E. Levy Medal (1944)
Timoshenko Medal (1957)
Elliott Cresson Medal (1958)
Fellow of the Royal Society
Stepan Prokopovych Tymoshenko (Ukrainian: ) (December 22, 1878 May 29,
1972), was an ethnic Ukrainian engineer from the Russian Empire and later the US. He is believed to be the father of
modern engineering mechanics. A founding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Tymoshenko wrote
seminal works in the areas of engineering mechanics, elasticity and strength of materials, many of which are still
widely used today. Having started his scientific career in Ukraine under the Russian Empire, Tymoshenko emigrated
to the United States during the Russian Civil War.
[1][2][3]
Stephen Timoshenko
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Biography
Tymoshenko was born in the village of Shpotivka in the Chernigov Governorate of the Russian Empire (now located
in Sumy Oblast of Ukraine). He studied at a "realnaya" school Russian: in Romny, Poltava
Governorate (now in Sumy Oblast) from 1889 to 1896. In Romny his schoolmate and friend was future famous
semiconductor physicist Abram Ioffe. Tymoshenko continued his education towards a university degree at the St
Petersburg Institute of engineers Ways of Communication. 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
Kyrpychov 19031906. In 1905 he was sent for one year to the University of Gttingen where he worked under
Ludwig Prandtl.
In the fall of 1906 he was appointed to the Chair of Strengths of Materials at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The
return to his native Ukraine turned out to be an important part of his career and also influenced his future personal
life. From 1907 to 1911 as a professor at the Polytechnic Institute 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. He was elected dean of the
Division of Structural Engineering in 1909.
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 D. I. Zhuravski prize of the St.Petersburg Ways of Communication Institute 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 Institute and the St Petersburg Institute of the Railways (19111917). 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 the Armed Forces of South Russia of general Denikin had taken Kiev in 1919, Tymoshenko moved from Kiev
to Rostov-on-Don. After travel via Novorossiysk, Crimea and Constantinople to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes, he arrived in Zagreb, where he got professorship at the Zagreb Polytechnic Institute. In 1920, during the
brief takeover of Kiev by the Polish army, Tymoshenko travelled to Kiev, reunited with his family and returned with
his family to Zagreb.
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.
Stephen Timoshenko
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A memorial to Stephen Tymoshenko at the KPI campus
United States
In 1922 Tymoshenko 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 1957 ASME established a medal named after
Stephen Tymoshenko; he became its first recipient. The
Timoshenko Medal honors Stephen P. Tymoshenko as
the world-renowned authority in the field of
mechanical engineering and it commemorates his
contributions as author and teacher. The Tymoshenko
Medal is given annually for distinguished contributions
in applied mechanics.
In addition to his textbooks, Tymoshenko wrote
Engineering Education in Russia and an autobiography,
As I Remember, the latter first published in Russian in 1963 with its English translation appearing in 1968.
In 1960 he moved to Wuppertal (Western Germany) to be with his daughter. He died in 1972 and his ashes are
buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Palo Alto, California.
List of Tymoshenko's doctoral students in the U.S.A.
University of Michigan
Coates, W. M., (1929)
Donnell, L. H., (1930)
Billevicz, V., (1931)
Everett, F. L., (1931)
Frocht, M. M., (1931)
Goodier, J. N.
[4]
, (1931)
Brandeberry, J. B., (1932)
MacCullough, G. H., (1932)
Jamieson, J., (1933)
Taylor, W. H., (1933)
Verse, G. L., (1933)
Vesselowsky, S. T., (1933)
Weibel, E. E., (1933)
Jakkula, A. A., (1934)
Maugh, L. C., (1934)
Schoonover, R. H., (1934)
Way, S., (1934)
Stephen Timoshenko
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Wojtaszak, I. A., (1934)
Allan, G. W. C., (1935)
Horger, O. J., (1935)
Maulbetsch, J. L., (1935)
Miles, A. J., (1935)
Young, D. H.
[5]
, (1935)
Anderson, C. G., (1936)
Fox, E. N., (1936)
Hetenyi, M. I.
[6]
, (1936)
Hogan, M. B., (1936)
Marin, J., (1936)
Zahorski, A. T., (1937)
Stanford University
Bergman, E. O., (1938)
Kurzweil, A. C., (1940)
Lee, E. H.
[7]
, (1940)
Huang, Y. S., (1941)
Wang, T. K., (1941)
Weber, H. S., (1941)
Hoff, N. J.
[8]
, (1942)
Popov, E. P.
[9]
, (1946)
Chilton, E. G.
[10]
, (1947)
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
Stephen Timoshenko
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References
[1] Biographical Memoirs about Stephen P. Tymoshenko (machine-read extracts) (http:/ / www. nap. edu/ books/ 0309032873/ html/ 322. html).
The National Academies Press (National Academy of Sciences)
[2] . , (http:/ / www. ihst. ru/ projects/ emigrants/ timoshenko. htm), Institute of the History of the
Natural Sciences and Technology (http:/ / www. ihst.ru/ ) of the Russian Academy of Science
[3] [3] .. . ., 1991.
[4] http:/ / histsoc. stanford. edu/ pdfmem/ GoodierJN.pdf
[5] http:/ / histsoc. stanford. edu/ pdfmem/ YoungD. pdf
[6] http:/ / histsoc. stanford. edu/ pdfmem/ HetenyiM.pdf
[7] http:/ / www. imechanica.org/ node/ 1395
[8] http:/ / histsoc. stanford. edu/ pdfmem/ HoffN.pdf
[9] http:/ / peer. berkeley. edu/ news/ 2001spring/ popov.html
[10] http:/ / histsoc. stanford. edu/ pdfmem/ ChiltonE.pdf
External links
He was the first in the Pleiades of outstanding scientists (http:/ / www. 300. years. spb. ru/ eng/ 3_spb_3.
html?id=81). Biographical essay by Vladimir Tcheparukhin.
S.P.Timoshenko (http:/ / smitu. cef. spbstu. ru/ timoshenko_en. htm). Structural Mechanics and Theory of
Elasticity Department of the Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnical University.
(Russian) (http:/ / www. ihst. ru/ projects/ emigrants/ timoshenko.
htm).Timoshenko Stepan Prokofyevich. Biographical essay by V.Borisov.
Article Sources and Contributors
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