Stephen Timoshenko

Introduction
Stepan Prokopovych Tymoshenko (December 22, 1878 May 29, 1972),
ethnic Ukrainian engineer from the Russian Empire and later the US. He
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
immigrated to the United States during the Russian Civil War.

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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 Kyrpychov19031906. 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 [Link]
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 Electro technical
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.
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 honours 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.

Publication

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

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,