Stephen P. Timoshenko
(1878-1972)

Stephen P. Timoshenko was a famous scientist, engineer, and teacher. Born in Russia, he came to the United States in 1922. He was a researcher with the Westinghouse Research Laboratory, a professor at the University of Michigan, and later a professor at Stanford University, where he retired in 1944. Timoshenko made many original contributions, both theoretical and experimental, to the field of applied mechanics, and he wrote twelve pioneering textbooks that revolutionized the teaching of mechanics in the United States. These books, which were published in as many as five editions and translated into as many as 35 languages, covered the subjects of statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, vibrations, structural theory, stability, elasticity, plates, and shells.

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