"Gury V. Kolosov, a Russian Who Was the First" Genady P. Cherepanov Essay by INC-program

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The English brief of Russian essay

Gury V. Kolosov, a Russian Who Was the First

Genady Cherepanov (Apend.1)
Honorary Life Member of the New York Academy of Sciences

As of 2009, a hundred years have passed since the publication of the work "An Application of the Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable to the Plane Mathematical Problems of the Theory of Elasticity" by Gury V. Kolosov in Yuriev Russian University. (Yuriev is now Tartu in Estonia). This work, where the Kolosov equations were derived, introduced a powerful mathematical tool into the theory of elasticity and allowed to find effective solutions to many problems of practical importance. It became known in the West only in 50 years after the book of N.I.Muskhelishvili was translated into English. In 1939 (30 years later!), Westergaard published a similar work in USA, which became famous, but it provided only a particular case of the Kolosov equations. The latter were used in many thousands of papers even without a citation of the Kolosov work. It is the highest distinction that means the recognition of Kolosov as a classic of science !
Since 1913 to the end, G.V.Kolosov (1869-1936) worked in the Peterburg University and the Institute of Electric Technology. He was not a great showman, so that he owed the final success to his student Muskhelishvili who popularized the Kolosov equations. The author analyzes the Kolosov success to understand the secrets of public successes and the heavy burden for a scientist to be a great showman to achieve some recognition. Some parallels from the history of science are brought up to illustrate the author's conclusions.
The author discloses also a dirty face of some famous success stories.

the Kolosov equations for all theory of elasticity