2024 Timoshenko Medal Acceptance Lecture: Mechanics, the French Way

Abstract

Presented at the ASME Applied Mechanics Division Banquet, Portland, OR, November 19, 2024.It is a great honor to receive the highest recognition in our field, the Timoshenko Medal. I feel very humbled to see my name added to the prestigious list of previous medalists. I am very grateful to those who, as John Willis said in his own Timoshenko lecture, “so successfully exaggerated my case” and to the Awards Committee who selected me.I am the first Frenchman on the list of medalists, and it was probably the intention of the award committee to honor a certain style of mechanics rather than an individual. I will comment on that style further on.