# Isaac Elishakoff

Isaac Elishakoff is an Israeli-American engineer who is Distinguished Research Professor in the Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department in the Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida. He is an internationally recognized, authoritative figure in the area of theoretical and applied mechanics. He has made seminal contributions in the areas of random vibrations, structural reliability, solid mechanics of composite materials, semi-inverse problems of vibrations and stability, functionally graded material structures, optimization and anti-optimization of structures under uncertainty, and carbon nanotubes.
He has over 620 journal papers, authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited 34 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 2024, Elishakoff has been selected for the world-renowned "Theodore von Kármán Fellowship". The Kármán Fellowship is an award established in 2005 by the Aachen University of Technology (RWTH Aachen) in Federal Republic of Germany to honor the work of the physicist and engineer Prof. Theodore Von Karman (1881-1963) world renowned aeronautics expert and first director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Each year, world-class scholars in the field of science and technology are selected and supported through this fellowship. Elishakoff's host was the Department of Continuum Mechanics. Prof. Elishakoff gave two presentations : (1) "Resolution of the 20th century conundrum in Elastic Stability", and a public lecture (2) "Scientific and Personal Stories about Theodore Von Kármán, Stephen Timoshenko, Paul Ehrenfest, and Walter Vincenti."
In 2021, Elishakoff received the Blaise Pascal Medal in Engineering from the European Academy of Sciences, “to recognize 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.”

## Career

Elishakoff was the Frank M. Freimann Visiting Chair Professor, at the University of Notre Dame, United States in 1985/86 and Henry J. Massman Jr. Visiting Chair Professor, at the same university in 1986/87.
He became a Fellow of American Academy of Mechanics, in 1991 ("For outstanding achievements and pioneering contributions in random vibrations”.) and was Visiting Professor, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy in 2005, 2010, 2017.
He is a Foreign Member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (“For seminal contributions to the theoretical and applied mechanics”) since 2010, a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts since 2011 and a Fellow, ASME since 2011.
He received the Worcester Reed Warner Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2016.; established in 1930, it is one of the society awards with the longest history. In 2019 he was awarded the William B. Johnson Inter-Professional Founders Award “In recognition for a lifetime achievement of accomplishments in applied mechanics research and instruction which affect world-wide advancement of business, culture, and learning”, by the Engineers Council.

## Books

* I. Elishakoff, Probabilistic Methods in the Theory of Structures, Wiley‑Interscience, New York, 1983, II + pp. 489; ISBN 978-981-3149-84-7.
* Elishakoff I, Probabilistic Theory of Structures, Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, 1999, XVI + pp. 492; ISBN 0-486-40691-1 (Second Edition).
* I. Elishakoff, Probabilistic Methods in the Theory of Structures: Random Strength of Materials, Random Vibration, and Buckling, World Scientific, Singapore, ISBN 978-981-3149-84-7, 2017. (Third Edition).
* Yakov Ben‑Haim and I. Elishakoff, Convex Models of Uncertainty in Applied Mechanics, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1990, XVII + pp. 221; ISBN 978-0444816245.
* Gabriel Cederbaum, I. Elishakoff, Jacob Aboudi and Liviu Librescu, Random Vibration and Reliability of Composite Structures, Technomic, Lancaster, 1992, XIII + pp. 191; ISBN 9780877628651.
* I. Elishakoff, Yukweng Lin and Liping Zhu, Probabilistic and Convex Modeling of Acoustically Excited Structures, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1994, VIII + pp. 296; ISBN 9781483290355.
* Elishakoff, Yiwei Li and James H. Starnes, Jr., Non‑Classical Problems in the Theory of Elastic Stability, Cambridge University Press, 2001, XVI +pp. 336; ISBN 0-521-78210-4.
* Elishakoff and Yongjian Ren, Large Variation Finite Element Method for Stochastic Problems, Oxford University Press, 2003, IX + pp. 260; ISBN 0-19-852631-8.
* I. Elishakoff, Safety Factors and Reliability: Friends or Foes?, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2004, X + pp. 295; ISBN 1-4020-1779-0.
* I. Elishakoff, Eigenvalues of Inhomogeneous Structures: Unusual Closed-Form Solutions of Semi-Inverse Problems, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2005, XIV + pp. 729; ISBN 0-8493-2892-6.
* I. Elishakoff and Makoto Ohsaki, Optimization and Anti-Optimization of Structures under Uncertainty, Imperial College Press, London, 2010, XV+ pp. 402; ISBN 978-1-84816-477-2.
* I. Elishakoff, D. Pentaras, K. Dujat, C. Versaci, G. Muscolino, J. Storch, S. Bucas, N. Challamel, T. Natsuki, Y.Y. Zhang, C.M. Wang and G. Ghyselinck, Carbon Nanotubes and Nano Sensors: Vibrations, Buckling, and Ballistic Impact, ISTE-Wiley, London, 2012, XIII+pp. 421;ISBN 978-1-84821-345-6.
* I. Elishakoff, Resolution of Twentieth Century Conundrum in Elastic Stability, World Scientific/Imperial College Press, Singapore, 2014; pp. 333, ISBN 978-981-4583-53-4.
* I. Elishakoff, D. Pentaras and C. Gentilini, Mechanics of Functionally Graded Material Structures, World Scientific/Imperial College Press, Singapore; pp. 323, ISBN 978-981-4656-58-0, 2015.
* I. Elishakoff, Solution Manual to Accompany Probabilistic Methods in the Theory of Structures: Problems with Complete, Worked Through Solutions, World Scientific, Singapore, ISBN 978-981-3201-10-1, 2018.
* I. Elishakoff, Handbook on Timoshenko-Ehrenfest Beam and Uflyand-Mindlin Plate Theories, World Scientific, Singapore,ISBN 978-981-3236-51-6, 2019.
* I. Elishakoff, Dramatic Effect of Cross-Correlations in Random Vibrations of Discrete Systems, Beams, Plates, and Shells , Springer, Nature, Switzerland, ISBN 978---3-030-40394-2, 2020.
* V. Raizer and I. Elishakoff, Philosophies of Structural Safety and Reliability, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, Hb: 978-1-032-20930-1, 2022.
* I.Elishakoff,Fair Share:111 Problems in Division from Ahmes to Aumann,Springer Nature Switzerland, ISBN 3031404181,2023.
* Elishakoff I., Multifaceted Uncertainty Quantification, Berlin, Boston, De Gruyter, ISBN 978-311-135-42-17, 2024 .
* Elishakoff I., S.P. Timoshenko in Perspective, Singapore: World Scientific, 2026.
* Elishakoff I., Follower Forces in Engineering and Science: Fact or Fantasy?, Singapore: World Scientific, 2026.

## Edited volumes

* I. Elishakoff and Richard H. Lyon, (editors), Random Vibration‑Status and Recent Developments, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1986, XX + pp. 565; ISBN 9780444426659.
* I. Elishakoff and Horst Irretier, (editors), Refined Dynamical Theories of Beams, Plates and Shels and their Applications, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1987, XII + pp. 436; ISBN 9783540175735.
* I. Elishakoff, Johann Arbocz, Charles D. Babcock, Jr. and Avinoam Libai, (editors), Buckling of Structures‑Theory and Experiment, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1988, XX + pp. 449; ISBN 978-0444704740.
* T. Ariaratnam, Gerhart Schuëller, and I. Elishakoff, (editors), Stochastic Structural Dynamics‑Progress in Theory and Applications, Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, London, 1988, XX + pp. 375; ISBN 978-1851662111.
* Chuh Mei, Howard F. Wolfe and I. Elishakoff, (editors), Vibration and Behavior of Composite Structures, ASME Press, New York, 1989, V + pp. 73; ISBN 978-0791803974.
* Fabio Casciati, I. Elishakoff, and J. Brian Roberts, (editors), Nonlinear Structural Systems under Random Conditions, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1990, pp. 386; ISBN 9780444888037.
* Ahmed K. Noor, I. Elishakoff and Greg Hulbert, (editors), Symbolic Computations and Their Impact on Mechanics, ASME Press, New York, 1990, XV + pp. 376; ISBN 978-0791805985.
* David Hui and I. Elishakoff, (editors), Impact and Buckling of Structures, ASME Press, New York, 1990, V + pp. 99; ISBN 978-0791805893.
* Y.K. Lin and I. Elishakoff, (editors), Stochastic Structural Dynamics 1‑New Theoretical Developments, Springer, Berlin, 1991, XIII + pp. 346; ISBN 9783642845314.
* I. Elishakoff and Y. K. Lin, (editors), Stochastic Structural Dynamics 2 ‑ New Applications, Springer, Berlin, 1991, XIII + pp. 351; ISBN 978-3-642-84534-5.
* I. Elishakoff (editor), Whys and Hows in Uncertainty Modeling, Springer, Vienna, 1999, VII + pp. 393, ISBN 3-211-83155-X.
* Alexander P. Seyranian and I. Elishakoff (editors), Modern Problems of Structural Stability, Springer, Vienna, 2002, III + pp. 394, ISBN 3-211-83697-7.
* I. Elishakoff (editor), Mechanical Vibration: Where Do We Stand, Springer, Vienna, 2007, IV + pp. 488, ISBN 3-211-68586-3.
* I. Elishakoff and C. Soize (editors), Non-Deterministic Mechanics, Springer, Vienna, 2012, II+ pp. 356, ISBN 978-3-7091-1305-9.

## Volumes Dedicated to I. Elishakoff

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:
* Vol. 1 Statics and Stability,
* Vol. 2 Vibrations,
* Vol. 3 Non-Deterministic Mechanics.

## Passion for Teaching: Response to Stephen Colbert

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: $x={\frac {-b\pm {\sqrt {b^{2}-4ac}}}{2a}}$ 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. As of March 1, 2025, these papers have been downloaded 18,412 times. With J. N. Reddy, Elishakoff has written on solving quadratic equations without resorting to quadratic formula. He also writes educational papers

## History of Science

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