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Memorial Tributes Volume 5 (1992) / Chapter Skim
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Eli Sternberg
Pages 270-275

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From page 271...
... There he restarted his college studies, this time in engineering, at the University of London. The following year he emigrated to the United States, continued his education at North Carolina State College, and receiver!
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From page 272...
... A rich variety of research topics in the theory of elasticity attracted Sternberg's probing interest during the ensuing decacles: singular solutions associated with load and geometry discontinuities; static and dynamic thermoelasticity; viscoelasticity; thermoviscoelasticit,v; load transfer and load diffusion in fiber-reinforced materials; finite-deformation effects on stress singularities; and the breakdown of uniqueness in stress and displacement fields. A superb mathematical analyst, Sternberg, throughout his career, not only provided explicit solutions to specific, basic problems of engineering importance but also contributed in fundamental ways to the foundations of the subjects with which he was concerned.
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From page 273...
... In addition to membership in the National Academy of Engineering, overt recognition came repeatedly, with election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the conferral of honorary cloctorates from North Carolina State University and the Technion of Israel; and the award of the Timoshenko Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. A marvelous speaker, he was constantly in demand as a lecturer on his research, and he held numerous distinguished invited lectureships throughout his career.
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From page 274...
... Concerning the perennially cleplored academic dictum to "publish or perish," he pointed out that one method of coping has often been to "publish perishables." On the same subject, he once referred to the "statistical validity" of the publication list of an especially prolific engineering researcher: "He has publishecI so many papers that there is a statistical chance that some of them are right." Alluding to the immaculately kept clesk of another professor: "As soon as some trash accumulates there, he publishes it! " Uncompromisingly serious about the achievement and maintenance of high scientific merit in his own work and that of his students, Eli nevertheless exuded an infectious sense of pleasure in scientific discovery and in the achievement of unclerstanding.
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Key Terms

  • load transfer
  • professional career
  • prolific engineering
  • mechanical engineers
  • statistical chance

  • work preceded
  • fulbright fellow
  • son peter
  • worldwide reputation
  • started soon

  • leading scholar
  • analagous questions
  • private practice
  • academic dictum
  • invited lectureships

  • provided explicit
  • daughter eve
  • postdoctoral research
  • infectious sense
  • worldly perception

  • eli sternberg
  • held numerous
  • technological importance
  • tremendous respect
  • stress fields

  • involving load
  • scientific achievements
  • load diffusion
  • imperfectly understood
  • load concentrations


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