Isaac Elishakoff

Isaac Elishakoff is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department in the Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.

He is a figure in the area of mechanics.

He has made several contributions in the areas of random vibrations, solid mechanics of composite material, semi-inverse problems of vibrations and stability, functionally graded material structures, and nanotechnology.

He has over 600 journal papers, 33 authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited books and has given over 200 national and international talks at conferences and seminars.

His selected lectures on (a) Elastic Stability, (b) Vibration Syntheses and Analysis and (c) Intermediate Strength of Materials are available on the internet.

In 2021, Elishakoff received the Blaise Pascal Medal in Engineering from the European Academy of Sciences, “to recognise an outstanding and demonstrated personal contribution to science and technology and the promotion of excellence in research and education.” He was simultaneously elected as a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences.

At the award ceremony he lectured on “Uncertainty Analysis in Engineering: From Blaise Pascal and Pierre Fermat to Modern Times.”

In recent years he published several articles about Stephen P. Timoshenko (1878-1972), author of numerous textbooks in applied mechanics.

In 1986, Dr. I. Elishakoff co-organized the European Mechanics Colloquium on "Refined Dynamical Theories of Beams, Plates and Shells, and Their Applications" in Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1990 he co-organized the Second International Conference on Stochastic Structural Dynamics, in Boca Raton, Florida.

In 1990, he co-organized the Symposium on "Symbolic Computations and Their Impact on Mechanics" at the 111th Winter Annual Meeting of the ASME, in Dallas, TX.

In 1992, he co-organized a joint FAU-University of Federal Armed Forces-Hamburg (FRG) Conference on "Recent Developments in Solid Mechanics".

In 1996 he organized an "International Conference on Uncertain Structures" in Miami and the Western Caribbean.

In 1997 he coordinated a special course, "Uncertainty in Engineering Probability, Fuzziness and Anti-Optimization" in the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM), in Udine, Italy, within its Hertz Session.

He also has organized numerous sessions at national and international meetings worldwide, including the sessions at the ASME meetings.

In 2001 he co-organized a special course, "Stability of Structures: Modern Problems and Unconventional Solutions” at CISM, Udine, Italy, Europe. In 2005, he organized a special course “Mechanical Vibrations: Where Do We Stand?” at CISM, Udine, Italy, Europe. In 2011 he co-organized a special course in “Nondeterministic Mechanics”, at CISM, Udine, Italy, Europe.

In 2021, Professors Noel Challamel (University of South Brittany, France), Julius Kaplunov (University of Keele, United Kingdom) and Izuru Takewaki (Kyoto University, Japan) edited three books titled, Modern Trends in Structural and Solid Mechanics, in honor of Isaac Elishakoff, with volumes:

In addition to extensive research he has developed numerous undergraduate and graduate courses, including apparently the first engineering course worldwide “Design for Homeland Security” (see his paper “Apparently first engineering course in homeland safety and security worldwide,” International Journal of Safety and Security in Engineering, Vol.3(4),333-338, 2014).

Here is a quote on the quadratic formula from I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert:

“Let’s try a little experiment.

Look at this equation:

What you are feeling right now, is your body rejecting an idea that is trying to make you learn it.

Don’t fight the confusion.

That’s just your mind scabbing over in a desperate attempt to protect you from that unnatural commingling of numbers and letters up there.

You can’t add it, and you can’t read it.

Useless.”

Elishakoff wrote an extensive response to Mr. Colbert’s statements.

Likewise, he described differential equations of love in order to promote love of differential equations by undergraduate students.

By February 1, 2024, these papers have been downloaded 16,585 times.

With J. N. Reddy, Elishakoff has written on solving quadratic equations without resorting to quadratic formula.

Elishakoff is interested in the history of science.

The article “ Stepan Prokofievich Timoshenko and America” became one of the most downloaded articles of The Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, also known as Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik or ZAMM, during years 2018/19.