William Prager

William Prager ( * May 23, 1903 in Karlsruhe, † March 17, 1980 in Savognin / Zurich ) was a German engineer and applied mathematician, known for his contributions to the theory of plasticity.

Biography

William Prager studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt and in 1925 received his diploma. In the same year he married his wife, Gertrude " Ann " Heyer and in 1926 received his doctorate in Darmstadt with the work contribution to the kinematics of the space frame. After two years as a lecturer in Darmstadt, he became in 1929 professor at the Georg -August- University of Göttingen, where he came into contact with Ludwig Prandtl. 1932 Prager was appointed Professor of Engineering Mechanics and Director of the Institute of Mechanics in Karlsruhe. He was at that time the youngest professor in Germany. The reason for his early vocation was his high international reputation, founded by his numerous publications and a first book on applied mathematics. With Hitler's seizure of Jewish origins, Prague, however, was forced from office. Prague treatment by the Nazis could not like, went to court against his dismissal and won. He reached a Surcharge for the wages he would have received if he could hold the office. He was also allowed to resume his professorship in Germany, but he refused. 1933 Prague left Germany to Turkey, where he was Professor of Theoretical Mechanics at the University of Istanbul.

In Turkey, he continued his research at the highest level, he published in German, Turkish, French and English. He learned Turkish in two years and wrote textbooks in Turkish for his students about descriptive geometry and elementary mechanics.

With the outbreak of the Second World War and the German advance in 1940, Prague decided to move to the U.S., where he had an offer from Brown University. The trip I proved at this time, however, difficult. He had to take a big detour to finally reach the Brown University where he was, he had known Otto Neugebauer of Göttingen, had contacted. In Prague was at Brown University a center of plasticity theory in the United States. There were, among others, Daniel C. Printer (1918-2001) and Philip G. Hodge key employees. With printer he turned the plasticity theory in soil mechanics.

In April 1943, Prague founded the journal " Quarterly of Applied Mathematics" and remained for 20 years until 1965 the editor.

In 1963 he left the Brown University ( where he was Professor Emeritus later) and was scientist (Resident Consultant) at the Zurich Research Laboratory IBM. From 1965 he was Professor of Applied Mechanics at the University of California, San Diego. In 1973 he retired to Savognin.

Honors

He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1968 and he was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Polish and the French Academy of Sciences. He received the Timoshenko Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Kármán Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was more honorary doctorates (Liège, Poitiers, Milan, Waterloo / Ontario, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Brown University, Manchester, Brussels, Stuttgart).

William Prager Medal

The " Society of Engineering Science " is in memory of William Prague since 1983 science prize out the William Prager Medal.

Writings

  • With Kurt Hohenems: Dynamics of Structures. An oscillation theory for structural engineers, Springer 1933
  • The extremum principles in the mathematical theory of elasticity and Their use in stress analysis, Bulletin of University of Washington Engineering Experiment Station, Seattle, 1950 ( Hyper Circle Method)
  • Philip G. Hodge: The theory of perfectly plastic solids, Wiley 1951
  • Problems of plasticity theory, Birkhäuser 1954
  • Theory of ideal plastic body, Springer 1954
  • An introduction to plasticity, Addison -Wesley 1959
  • Introduction to Continuum Mechanics, Birkhäuser, 1961 ( Lectures at ETH Zurich )
  • Introduction to basic Fortran programming and numerical methods, Blaisdell 1965
  • Introduction to structural optimization, 1974 ( Lectures in Udine)
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