Victor Vâlcovici

Victor Vâlcovici (September 21, 1885–June 21, 1970) was a Romanian mechanician and mathematician.

Born into a modest family in Galați, he graduated first in his class in 1904 from Nicolae Bălcescu High School in Brăila. Entering the University of Bucharest on a scholarship, he attended its faculty of sciences and graduated in 1907 with a degree in mathematics. He then taught high school for two years before leaving for Göttingen University on another scholarship to pursue a doctorate in mathematics. He defended his thesis in 1913; the topic was discontinuous flow of liquids in two free dimensions,[1] and amplified upon the work of Bernhard Riemann.[2]

He was subsequently named assistant professor of mechanics at Iași University, rising to full professor in 1918.[3] In 1921, he became rector of the Polytechnic School of Timișoara. There, he was also professor of rational mechanics and founded a laboratory dedicated to the field.[2] During his nine years as rector, he worked to place the recently founded university on a solid foundation.[3] From 1930 until retiring in 1962, he taught experimental mechanics at Bucharest University.[2] In the government of Nicolae Iorga, he served as Minister of Public Works from 1931 to 1932. During this time, he introduced a modern road network that featured paved highways.[2][3]

Elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1936,[4] he was stripped of his membership by the new communist regime in 1948,[5] but made a titular member in 1965.[6] His numerous articles on theoretical and applied mechanics covered topics such as the principles of variational mechanics, the mechanics of ideal fluid flow, the theory of elasticity and astronomy.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Otlăcan, pp. 125–6
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Hager, p. 1361
  3. 1 2 3 Otlăcan, p. 127
  4. ↑ Otlăcan, p. 126, 127
  5. ↑ (Romanian) Păun Otiman, "1948–Anul imensei jertfe a Academiei Române", in Academica, Nr. 4 (31), December 2013, p. 123
  6. ↑ (Romanian) Membrii Academiei Române din 1866 până în prezent, at the Romanian Academy site

References

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