Committee for Mechanics

The Committee for Mechanics was established by a resolution of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences on March 26, 1960. In July of the same year, the Committee for Mechanics changed its name to the Committee for Applied Mechanics, and in 1966 the Committee was renamed the Committee for Continuum Mechanics and Physics. Then, in 1978, the Committee returned to its original name of the Committee for Mechanics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The founder of the Committee for Mechanics was Prof. Witold Nowacki, Secretary of Division IV of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The first Chairman of the Committee for Mechanics was Prof. Wacław Olszak. The Committee conducts activities in the field of sciences related to the discipline of Mechanics, and in particular in the field of mechanics of continuum, including solid state mechanics and fluid mechanics. In addition, the Committee for Mechanics deals with detailed issues in biomechanics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, fluid mechanics, experimental mechanics, computational mechanics and optimization methods. The Committee for Mechanics of the Polish Academy of Sciences serves as a National Committee in two international institutions important to the Mechanics community: The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) and the International Center for Mechanical Sciences (CISM). IUTAM is a worldwide organization of national delegations of Mechanics from all over the world, which plays a leading role in promoting the development of mechanical sciences. CISM operates in Udine, Italy, and is one of those few international organizations with which Poland not only cooperates, but in whose founding and further operation the Polish Academy of Sciences and Polish scientists have played a leading role.