Theodore van Kármán
(1881-1963)

Theodore van Kármán was born in Hungary and later worked at the University of Göttingen in the field of aerodynamics. After coming to the United States in 1929, he found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and pioneered in aircraft and rocket problems. His research also included inelastic buckling of columns and stability of shells.

From Mechanics of Materials, 4th Ed., by J.M. Gere and S.P. Timoshenko, PWS Publishing, 1997, pp. 835-42.