May 25, 1927 (Bucharest, Romania) – June 7, 2013 (Paris, France)
Essential contribution
Elasticité Linéaire
Published by Masson, Paris, in 1968.
Note
The presentation which follows reflects some details of the evocation “The Great Professor Liviu Solomon” – evocation included in the Chapter written by Liviu Dinu, in the Book “Pages from the History of Romanian Mathematics”, published in 2018 by the Romanian Academy Publishing House (Vol. 11 of the Series „Romanian Civilisation”).
Education and post-graduate affiliations
Liviu Solomon graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Bucharest in 1948; he completed the four-year program in three years. He was then part of the Algebra department, as assistant professor to Professor Dan Barbilian. However, after two years (1948-1949 and 1949-1950), during which Professor Barbilian was predicting for him a successful career as an Algebrist, Liviu Solomon accepted (true to his big secret love for Mechanics) a PhD scholarship in Applied Mathematics (Elasticity Theory) at the Moscow Lomonosov University.
PhD Thesis
PhD in Moscow, 1950-1953, under advisorship of the reputed scientist in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics Iurii Nikolaevich Rabotnov (the name of Iurii Nikolaevich Rabotnov is mentioned in a historic list of the greatest 20 Mechanics scientists of the Russian Academy; the list opens with the name of Leonhard Euler). While preparing his PhD, Liviu Solomon worked at the Institute of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
His thesis, “About the Hypothesis of Stress State Decomposition” („Despre ipoteza descompunerii stării de tensiune”), was considered as one of the most remarkable works of that period in the field of Elasticity. A significant section of this thesis was published in the most prestigious Russian Mechanics journal: Prikladnaia Matematica i Mehanika („The one-dimensional problem for a thin elastic helicoidal shell”, Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Vol. XVIII, Nr. 1, 1954) and another significant fragment in the Romanian Academy’s Scientific Bulletin („Despre ipoteza descompunerii stării de tensiune” (“About the Hypothesis of Stress State Decomposition”, Buletinul Științific al Academiei Române, Secț. Mat. Fiz.”, 1954).
Career
Associate Professor at the Department of Elasticity, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Bucharest, 1953 – 1971.
He taught courses in Elasticity and Mechanics of Deformable Mediums.
He had as students: Gheorghe Dincă, Iulian Beju, Liviu Dinu, Dragos Drãghicescu, Adelina Georgescu, Veturia Niță (Chiroiu), Tudor Sireteanu, Eugen Soos, Nicolae Viorel, Viorel Visarion.
Bucharest University, Romania
Professor at the Université de Poitiers, Laboratoire de Méchanique Théoretique, 1971 – 1992.
He collaborated with Paul Germain (secrétaire perpetuel de l’Académie des Sciences), Alain Cimetière, Marcel Hocquemiller, Pierre Coirier.
He taught courses in Dimensional Analysis, Materials Rupture, Mechanics of Deformable Bodies, Computational Analysis, and Advanced Mechanics (for the Diplôme d’Études Approfondies -DÉA program)
Essential contribution (Details):
Elasticité Linéaire
Published by Masson, Paris, 1968. Available on Google Books.
Preface by Paul Germain
About L. Solomon’s Elasticité Linéaire (brief notes by Liviu Dinu)
- The first three prints of this book sold out promptly.
- For a long time, this book would be on every French Elasticity Theory researcher’s desk.
- The book was translated and published in Romanian in 1969 as Elasticitate liniară. Introducere matematică în statica solidului elastic, at Editura Academiei. The Romanian edition is available on Google Books.
- The bibliography included in the book reflects the Romania stage of his career.
- The book elaborated on the Linear Elasticity course that Liviu Solomon held at the Bucharest University. An example of the Professor’s pursuit of excellence.
- Another outstanding course developed by Liviu Solomon (“Metode variaționale în Teoria Elasticității”/ “Variational methods in the Elasticity Theory”), through which a whole generation of Romanian researchers had access to the essence of Natural Language and Functional Analysis. The course was held at the Bucharest University, however, it was never published, only due to perpetual reservations the Professor himself had, not satisfied that the course content was rich enough.
- A moving example of the Professor’s never-ending quest for perfection. In the early ’90ies, I was in Paris, at the Paris 6 University (Applied Mathematics). I was strolling among the bookshelves. Serendipitously (but we know, nothing is really accidental), my gaze fell on the Professor’s (essential) Book. The copy’s condition showed it had been borrowed many times – that’s actually what drew my attention. I pulled it from the shelf and opened it. To my surprise, at the end of the book, the Professor (who else?!) had taped about 5 or 6 typed pages, 2-sided, folded to fit the book format. Those added pages (themselves clearly perused many times), contained additions to the text (20 years after the book has been published!). The Professor knew the Book still had many readers and, impressively, he was communicating with them (ignoring the passage of time), through those new pages, which had been added to each of the 3 or 4 copies in the Library.
The Treatise Elasticité Linéaire: importance and usefulness
The preface to Elasticité Linéaire (preface signed by Professor Paul Germain of the French Academy of Sciences) states: “Professor SOLOMON offers us a treatise. • We must admit that the once classical genre of the “treatise” (intended to combine knowledge gained on a fairly broad subject) is somewhat neglected today, and this for the very obvious reason that it is difficult to capture today in a single work a theory or a rather broad and evolving discipline. • The author chose to omit certain chapters of the Linear context in order to focus on the Plane Problem, the Anti-Plane Problem, the Three-Dimensional Problem (with representations of solutions), the Elastic Sphere Problem, the Elastic Semi-Space Problem, and the Elastic Contact Problem. In these directions the author brings extremely substantial and complete developments, which reflect very recent results from the literature. • This book shows a considerable effort to supplement the scientific quality with the presence of the useful. Therefore, not only the specialist in the field will benefit by studying this tome, but also the student or the engineer. This book is indispensable for those who want to get started in the field, for those who are looking for clarifications through a complementary approach, or for those who are interested in the mathematics of the models presented. “
Publications
Remembering Professor Liviu Solomon
Page updated December 27th, 2022
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Liviu Solomon 