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Dr. Isaac Elishakoff


Biographical Information




Dr. Isaac Elishakoff serves as the J.M. Rubin Foundation Distinguished Professor of Structural Reliability, Safety and Security in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Florida Atlantic University. He also holds a courtesy appointment as a Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Professor Elishakoff holds a Ph.D. in Dynamics and Strength of Machines from the Power Engineering Institute and Technical University in Moscow, Russia. Prior to joining the Florida Atlantic University, he taught one year in the Abkhazian University, Sukhumi, Republic of Georgia, and eighteen years at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. He also occupied several visiting positions. He was an inaugural holder of the Frank M. Freimann Chair Professorship of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana during academic year 1985/86; as well as the Henry J. Massman, Jr. Chair Professorship of Civil Engineering during the Fall Semester, 1986/87. He was a Visiting Castigliano Distinguished Professor in University of Palermo, Italy during March 1992. During the academic year 1979-80 he served as Visiting Associate Professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. In 1987, he served as a Visiting Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. In summers of 1990 and 1991, he was a Visiting Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, where in July 2000 served as an inaugural holder of the W. T. Koiter Chair Professorship (Mechanical Engineering Department); in June 2005 he served a Visiting Professor at the University of Rome, “ La Sapienza” and University of Bologna, Italy. During December 2006 - February 2007 he served as the Fellow of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science, at the University of Kyoto. During April/May 2007 he served as a Visiting Eminent Scholar at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, People’s Republic of China.


Dr. Elishakoff is a recipient of the Bathsheva de Rothschild prize, as well as Fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Office, and the National Technical Foundation of the Netherlands. In 1992 he served as Fellow of Japan Society of Promotion of Science in the University of Tokyo. He was presented special medallions of the University of Notre Dame, and of the University of Tokyo. During the years 1996-2002 he was appointed as an ASME Distinguished Lecturer.


In 1991 Dr. Elishakoff has been elected as a Fellow of American Academy of Mechanics, for outstanding contributions to random vibrations of structures and pioneering contributions to uncertainty modeling. His research activities were supported at various periods by NSF; NASA Kennedy Space Center; NASA Langley Research Center; NASA Glenn Research Center; ICASE-NASA Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering; National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.


Dr. Elishakoff has made pioneering contributions in several areas: 1. random vibrations, with special emphasis on continuous, homogeneous and composite beams, plates and shells and associated effects of refinements in theories and of cross-correlations; 2. free vibration of structures with the generalization of Bolotin's dynamic edge effect method, free of degeneracy property characteristic to the original method; 3. nonlinear buckling of structures, with a new method to combine the results of experimental measurements of shell imperfections to predict the theoretical knockdown factors associated with different manufacturing processes; 4. structural reliability with elucidation of errors associated with various low-order approximations and human errors; 5. work on a non-probabilistic theory for treating uncertainty in mechanics, namely, optimization and anti-optimization under uncertainty and, especially, its combination with stochastic modeling; 6. dynamic stability of structures with imperfections, in elastic or viscoelastic setting; 7. random vibrations and reliability of composite structures with attendant first book worldwide; 8. development of the improved finite element method for stochastic structures which has a non-perturbative nature; 9. stochastic linearization, 10. computerized symbolic algebra; 11. co-authored the first and only monograph worldwide on convex modeling of uncertainty; 12. co-authored the first and only monograph worldwide on reliability of composite structures; 13. co-authored the first and only monograph on acoustically excited structures; 14. co-authored the first and only monograph on uncertain instability problems; 15. authored the first and only monograph on exact solutions for inhomogeneous structures; 16. authored the first and only monograph in English on safety factors.


Dr. Elishakoff has published about 350 original papers in leading national and international journals and conference proceedings. His publications appeared mostly in ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London; AIAA Journal; International Journal of Solids and Structures; Journal of Sound and Vibration; Journal Mathematical Problems in Engineering; Acta Mechanica; Journal of Composite Structures; Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering; Computers and Structures; Journal of Acoustical Society of America; Chaos, Solitons & Fractals; Meccanica and many others.


In addition to extensive research he has developed numerous undergraduate and graduate courses, including apparently the first engineering course worldwide “Design for Homeland Security.”


Dr. Elishakoff is General Advisory Editor for publications on Vibration, Stability and Reliability for the series "Studies in Applied Mechanics" and "Developments in Civil Engineering" of Elsevier Science Publishers, Oxford, England; book review editor of the “Journal of Shock and Vibration”; he is Associate Editor of three journals: (1) International Journal of Mechanics of Machines and Structures; (2) Applied Mechanics Reviews of the ASME; (3) Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Sciences "Chaos, Solitons and Fractals" of Pergamon Press. He is on editorial boards of following five journals: (1) Journal of Sound and Vibration; (2) The Shock and Vibration Digest; (3) Trends in Acoustical Research; (4) The Uncertainties in Engineering Mechanics Journal; (5) International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics. In the past he served also on boards of (6) Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics; (7) Journal of Symbolic Computation; (8) International Journal of Computers and Structures.


In 1986, Dr. I. Elishakoff co-organized the (a) European Mechanics Colloquium on "Refined Dynamical Theories of Beams, Plates and Shells, and Their Applications" in Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany; (b) in 1990 he co-organized the Second International Conference on Stochastic Structural Dynamics, in Boca Raton, Florida. 8 In 1990, he co-organized the Symposium on "Symbolic Computations and Their Impact on Mechanics" at the 111th Winter Annual Meeting of the ASME, in Dallas, TX. (d) In 1992, he co-organized a joint FAU-University of Federal Armed Forces-Hamburg (FRG) Conference on "Recent Developments in Solid Mechanics." (e) In 1996 he organized an "International Conference on Uncertain Structures" in Miami and Western Caribbean. (f) In 1997 he coordinated a special course, "Uncertainty in Engineering Probability, Fuzziness and Anti-Optimization" in the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM ), in Udine, Italy, within its Hertz Session. He also has organized numerous sessions at national and international meetings worldwide, including the sessions at the ASME meetings. (g) In 2001 he co- organized a special course, "Stability of Structures: Modern Problems and Unconventional Solutions” in CISM, Udine, Italy. (h) In 2005, he is organizing a special course “Mechanical Vibrations: Where Do We Stand?”, in CISM, Udine Italy.


Dr. Elishakoff has lectured at about 200 national and international meetings and seminars, including over 25 special invited lectures and 13 key-note lectures. He also has lectured worldwide in Europe, North and South America, Middle East, and Far East.

Dr. Elishakoff is the author or co-author of the following eight monographs:


(1) I. Elishakoff, Probabilistic Methods in the Theory of Structures, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1983, XII + pp. 489 (second edition: Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, 1999 XVI + pp. 492).


(2) Y. Ben-Haim and I. Elishakoff, Convex Models of Uncertainty in Applied Mechanics, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1990, XVII + pp. 221.


(3) G. Cederbaum, I. Elishakoff, J. Aboudi and L. Librescu, Random Vibrations and Reliability of Composite Structures, Technonic Publishers, Lancaster, PA, 1992, X + pp. 196.


(4) I. Elishakoff, Y. K. Lin and L.P. Zhu, Probabilistic and Convex Modeling of Acoustically Excited Structures, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1994, VIII + pp. 296.


(5) I. Elishakoff, Y. W. Li and J. H. Starnes, Jr., Nonclassical Problems in the Theory of Elastic Stability, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, XVI + pp. 336.


(6) I. Elishakoff and Y. J. Ren, Large Variation Finite Element Method for Stochastic Problems, Oxford University Press, 2003, IX + pp. 260.

(7) I. Elishakoff, Safety Factors and Reliability: Friends or Foes?, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2004, + pp. 296.


(8) I. Elishakoff, Eigenvalues of Inhomogeneous Structures: Unusual Closed-Form Solutions, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2004, XVII + pp. 720.


He also co-edited the following 13 volumes:


(9) I. Elishakoff and H. Lyon, (eds.), Random Vibration - Status and Recent Developments, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1986, XX + pp. 565.


(10) I. Elishakoff and H. Irretier, (eds.), Refined Dynamical Theories of Beams, Plates and Shells, and Their Applications, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1987, XII + pp. 436.


(11) I. Elishakoff, J. Arbocz, Ch. D. Babcock, Jr. and A. Libai, (eds.), Buckling of Structures-Theory and Experiment, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1988, XX + pp. 449.


(12) S. T. Ariaratnam, G. Schuëller and I. Elishakoff, (eds.), Stochastic Structural Dynamics-Progress in Theory and Applications, Elsevier Applied Science

Publishers, London, 1988, XX + pp.375.


(13) C. Mei, H. F. Wolfe and I. Elishakoff,(eds.), Vibration and Behavior of Composite Structures, ASME Press, New York, 1989, V + pp. 73.


(14) F. Casciati, I. Elishakoff and J. B. Roberts, (eds.), Nonlinear Structural Systems under Random Conditions, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 1990, VII + pp. 386.


(15) D. Hui and I. Elishakoff, (eds.), Impact and Buckling of Structures, ASME Press, New York, 1990, V + pp. 99.


(16) A. K. Noor, I. Elishakoff and G. Hulbert, (eds.), Symbolic Computations and Their Impact on Mechanics, ASME Press, New York, 1990, XV + pp. 376.


(17) Y. K. Lin and I. Elishakoff, (eds.), Stochastic Structural Dynamics–New Theoretical Developments, Springer, Berlin, 1991, XIII + pp. 346.


(18) I. Elishakoff and Y.K. Lin, (eds.), Stochastic Structural Dynamics–New Applications, Springer, Berlin, 1991, XIII + pp. 351.


(19) I. Elishakoff (ed.), Whys and Hows in Uncertainty Modeling, Springer, Vienna, 1999 VI+ pp. 393.


(20) A.P. Seyranian and I. Elishakoff (eds.), Modern Problems of Structural Stability,

Springer, Vienna, 2002, IV + pp. 394.


(21) I. Ekishakoff (ed.), Mechanical Vibration: Where Do We Stand?, Springer, Vienna, 2007, IV+pp. 488.


Presently, Dr. Elishakoff is composing a monograph titled “Follower Forces: Fact or Fancy?”


Dr. Elishakoff is listed in (1) Who's Who in America: Science and Engineering; (2) Lexington Who's Who; (3) Marquis Who’s Who; (4) “The Contemporary Who’s Who of Professionsals”; (5) Who's Who in the World.