François Cosserat (26 October 1852 – 22 March 1914) was a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

known by his theories about deformable bodies written with his brother Eugène.

Life and work

François Cosserat was the eldest of the three sons of François-Constant Cosserat, a textile manufacturer in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

. The three sons achieved to study in one of the ''grandes écoles'' of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. François studied at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

from 1870 to 1872 and then in the

École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées École nationale des ponts et chaussées (; ; abbr. ENPC), also nicknamed Ponts (), formerly known as École des Ponts ParisTech (), is a grande école in the field of science, engineering and technology, of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, a ...

until 1875. François Cosserat followed a typical career as civil engineer in the French East Railroad Company constructing and designing bridges, tunnels, etc. In 1895 he became chief engineer. Besides his engineer career he worked with his junior brother, Eugène, in

mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...

and elasticity, publishing papers and a book about it. In 1913 he was elected president of the

Société mathématique de France Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

. His most important work is his book, a joint work with his brother,
Théorie des corps déformables (Theory of deformable bodies)
' (1909) in which laid the foundations of the mechanics of the generalized continua. His approach can be particularly useful in modeling nonlinear elastic inhomogeneous deformations and inelastic deformations. Other remarkable joint works are: ''Théorie de l'élasticité'' (1896), ''Note sur la cinématique d'un milieu continu'' (1897), ''Note sur la dynamique du point et du corps invariable'' (1906) and ''Note sur la théorie de l'action euclidienne'' (1909).

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cosserat, Francois 19th-century French mathematicians 20th-century French mathematicians 1852 births 1914 deaths École Polytechnique alumni

Life and work

See also

References

Bibliography

External links