力学奖学金

几天前，我和一位亲爱的同事就力学的学术现状和新一代力学家的教育问题进行了一次很好的讨论。万博体育平台在过去的几十年里，大多数力学研究者把他们的活动限制在写论文和研究计划上。这是因为“奖励制度”对撰写专著和教科书没有多大价值。事实上，与铁木申科、特鲁兹达尔等机械学巨匠的著作相比，这一时期出版的高质量书籍数量相形见绌。我认为这是一种令人遗憾的事态，需要填补这一空白。如今，大部分知识的传播都是通过社交媒体和其他在线场所完成的。使用社交媒体进行交流是有价值的，将课堂笔记发布到在线存储库也是有价值的。但是有人会说，如果力学要继续作为工程科学支柱的传统，这种方法是不够的。我鼓励年轻一代考虑把他们的一些时间花在写关于现代力学主题的书和专著上。对于想要学习这些主题并迅速做出自己贡献的学生和研究人员来说，写得好的、尽可能独立、严谨的书籍将是一个很好的资源。 The time required on the learning curve with the help of books will certainly be shorter than the time needed to learn by finding good papers in the sea of the published literature. Writing good books takes time and commitment, and also a deep understanding of the subject. During my discussion I was reminded of the masterpieces written by my dear friend Piero Villaggio, who dedicated years of his life to write my favorite elasticity book Qualitative Methods in Elasticity and the monumental Die Werke von Johann Bernoulli I: Mechanics. It took Piero four years to write the latter, which involved reading many of Bernoulli's manuscripts, to "get into the mind" of Bernoulli and explain his thought process; and also to correct some of Bernoullli's errors. Piero was fortunate to have started his career when productivity was not measured by grantsmanship, citation metrics and awards. This allowed him to focus on pure intellectual activities, and to inspire everyone in his orbit, including me. I encourage the younger generation to think about spending more of their time on this kind of scholarship. It will make them better researchers, teachers, and mentors.