Ivan Vsevolodovich Meshcherskii

Meshcherskii, Ivan Vsevolodovich 

Born July 29 (Aug. 10), 1859, in Arkhangel’sk; died Jan. 7, 1935, in Leningrad. Soviet scientist in theoretical and applied mechanics.

Meshcherskii graduated from the department of physics and mathematics of the University of St. Petersburg in 1882. In 1890 he became a lecturer in the subdepartment of mechanics at that institution. He became head of the subdepartment of theoretical mechanics of the St. Petersburg (later Leningrad) Polytechnic Institute from 1902.

Mescherskii’s works laid the foundation for the mechanics of bodies with variable mass and became the theoretical basis for work on various problems, mainly in reaction technology and celestial mechanics. He consistently brought out the idea of the close relationship between theoretical and applied mechanics.

Meshcherskii was an outstanding teacher who radically altered the teaching of theoretical mechanics. His Collection of Problems in Theoretical Mechanics (1911) has been reprinted numerous times in the USSR and abroad.

WORKS

Raboty po mekhanike peremennoi massy, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1952.

REFERENCES

Nikolai, E. “Professor I. V. Meshcherskii” [obituary]. Prikladnaia matematika i mekhanika, 1936, vol. 3, fasc. 1.
Nikolai, E. “Ivan Vsevolodovich Meshcherskii.” Trudy Leningradskogo politekhnicheskogo instituta, 1949, no. 1.
Geronimus, Ia. L. Ocherki o rabotakh korifeev russkoi mekhaniki. Moscow, 1952.
Kosmodem’ianskii, A. A. “Ivan Vsevolodovich Meshcherskii.” In Liudi russkoi nauki. Moscow-Leningrad, 1961.

L. I. UVAROVA