Gustavo Colonnetti

Gustavo Colonnetti (8 November 1886 – 20 March 1968) was an Italian mathematician and engineer who made important contributions to continuum mechanics and strength of materials. He was a Rector of the Politecnico di Torino and President of CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche). His theories found important applications in modern techniques of construction, such as pre-stressed concrete.[1]

Gustavo Colonnetti
Born(1886-11-08)8 November 1886
Turin
Died20 March 1968(1968-03-20) (aged 81)
Turin
NationalityItalian
Alma materPolitecnico di Torino (Laurea in engineering, 1908)
Università di Torino (Laurea in mathematics, 1911)
Known forColonnetti's theorem
Scientific career
FieldsCivil engineering
Linear elasticity
Mathematics
InstitutionsUniversità di Pisa
Politecnico di Torino

He is remembered for Colonnetti's theorem (or Colonnetti's minimum principle) which states that in equilibrium the potential energy function W* is minimized.

Life

Honors

He was nominated member of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences on October 28, 1936.[2] In 1947, during the first meeting of the RILEM in Sorrento, he was elected first president of the society, and began its mandate in 1948.[3] The same year, on the 27th of August 1947, he was elected corresponding member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei:[4] nearly a year later, on the 15th of July 1948, he was elected full member.[5]

Work

Research activity

Due figure particolarmente significative nella teoria dell'elasticità in Italia furono Gustavo Colonnetti e Giulio Krall. Rappresentò, ciascuno di essi, una sintesi quasi perfetta tra la figura dell'ingegnere e quella del matematico.[6]

— Gaetano Fichera, (Fichera 1979, p. 21).

Teaching activity

Queste pagine–in cui ho raccolte le lezioni da me impartite quest'anno agli allievi del Politecnico di Torino–rispecchiano fedelmente la concezione didattica a cui io ispiro il mio insegnamento; il quale si propone, deliberatamente, finalità di alta cultura, e, solo subordinatamente, di preparazione professionale. La scelta degli argomenti è stata fatta con quest'unica preoccupazione: di offrire allo studioso i principii fondamentali, di approfondirne il significato e la portata, di vedere come si possa su di essi costruire un corpo razionale di dottrine, e come questo possa poi venire, di volta in volta, utilizzato per risolvere problemi concreti. Gli argomenti che meglio si prestano a tale scopo sono stati sviluppati a fondo. Altri, per se stessi non meno importanti, ma sotto questo punto di vista meno suggestivi, sono stati in tutto o in parte trascurati. Il lettore non troverà qui la solita raccolta di soluzioni fatte, da applicare–a proposito o a sproposito–a tutti i problemi che la pratica tecnica gli potrà presentare. Ma potrà imparare ad analizzare ed a risolvere ciascuno di quei problemi, rendendosi conto del valore delle ipotesi su cui la soluzione si fonda e del grado di approssimazione ch'essa comporta.[7]

— Gustavo Colonnetti, (Colonnetti 1941, p. i).

Selected publications
  • Colonnetti, Gustavo (1941), Scienza delle costruzioni (in Italian), Torino: Edizioni Scientifiche Einaudi, pp. viii+509.
  • Colonnetti, Gustavo (1960), Elastoplasticità, Scripta varia (in Italian), 19, Città del Vaticano: Pontificia Academia Scientiarum, p. 110, Zbl 0102.16902.
  • Colonnetti, Gustavo (1960), L'équilibre des corps déformables (in French), Paris: Dunod, p. 162

Notes
  1. See (Iori 2008, pp. 1506–1507).
  2. See 1936–1937 yearbook, p. 241, of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences.
  3. According to the obituary notice published in Materials and construction and to the RILEM 50th anniversary book, p. 49.
  4. Precisely, He was elected corresponding member of the class of physical, mathematical and natural sciences, according to the 2012 yearbook, p. 438, of the Accademia dei Lincei.
  5. According to the 2012 yearbook, p. 438, of the Accademia dei Lincei.
  6. (English translation) "Two particularly important personalities of the mathematical theory of elasticity in Italy were Gustavo Colonnetti and Giulio Krall. Each of them represented an almost perfect synthesis of the professional figures of the engineer and of the mathematician".
  7. (English translation) "These pages–where I have collected the lessons given to the students of the Polytechnic University of Turin–reflect faithfully the didactic conception inspiring my teaching; it deliberately aims to purposes of higher learning, and only subject to, professional training. The choice of the topics exposed has been made under this only aim: to offer the scholar the fundamental principles, analyze their meaning and scope in depth, show how they can be used to build a rational body of doctrines, and how this body can be used, time by time, to solve concrete problems. All the topics which best suit this aim are developed thoroughly. Other topics, intrinsically not less important, but less attractive from this point of view, have been totally or partially neglected. The reader will not find here the usual collection of solved problems, ready to be applied–appropriately or inappropriately–to the whole range of problems the professional practice may show him. But he will learn how to analyze and solve each of such problems, realizing the value of the hypotheses on which the solution is founded and the degree of approximation implied."

References

Biographical references

References describing his research work

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