Background
Gury Kolosov was born on August 25, 1867, in Ust, Novgorod guberniya, Russia. His father was a local physician.
Gurevich Gymnasium, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Kolosov graduated from Gurevich Gymnasium in Saint Petersburg with a gold medal in 1885.
Saint Petersburg University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
In 1885 Kolosov joined the faculty of physics and mathematics of Saint Petersburg University. He graduated from the university in 1889.
1931
Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia
In 1931 Kolosov was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R (now the Russian Academy of Sciences).
1931
Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia
In 1931 Kolosov was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R (now the Russian Academy of Sciences).
Gurevich Gymnasium, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Kolosov graduated from Gurevich Gymnasium in Saint Petersburg with a gold medal in 1885.
Saint Petersburg University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
In 1885 Kolosov joined the faculty of physics and mathematics of Saint Petersburg University. He graduated from the university in 1889.
Гурий Васильевич Колосов
educator engineer mathematician scientist
Gury Kolosov was born on August 25, 1867, in Ust, Novgorod guberniya, Russia. His father was a local physician.
Kolosov graduated from Gurevich Gymnasium in Saint Petersburg with a gold medal in 1885, and in that year joined the faculty of physics and mathematics of Saint Petersburg University. His doctoral advisor was Dmitry Bobylyov. Kolosov graduated from the university in 1889 and remained there to prepare for a teaching career.
In 1893 Kolosov passed his master’s examination and was named director of the mechanics laboratory of the university and teacher of theoretical mechanics at the St. Petersburg Institute of Communications Engineers. From 1902 to 1913 he worked at Yurev (now Tartu) University, as privatdocent and then as a professor. In 1913 he returned to Saint Petersburg, where he became head of the department of theoretical mechanics at the Electrotechnical Institute; in 1916 he also became head of the department of theoretical mechanics at the university. Kolosov worked in these two institutions until the end of his life.
Gury Kolosov’s most important achievement to mathematics was his establishment of formulas expressing the components of the tensor of stress and of the vector of displacement through two functions of a complex variable, analytical in the area occupied by the elastic medium. In 1916 Kolosov’s method was applied to heat stress in the plane problem of the theory of elasticity by his student N. I. Muskhelishvili. Specialists in the theory of elasticity still use Kolosov’ formulas.
Kolosov’s scientific work was devoted largely to two important areas of theoretical mechanics: the mechanics of solid bodies, with which he began his career; and the theory of elasticity, on which he worked almost exclusively from 1908. His first important achievement in the mechanics of solid bodies was his discovery of a new “integrated” case of a motion for a top on a smooth surface, related to the turning of a solid body about a fixed point. This result was published by Kolosov in 1898 in On One Case of the Motion of a Heavy Solid Body Supported by a Point on a Smooth Surface. His basic results in the mechanics of solid bodies are discussed in his master’s dissertation, On Certain Modifications of Hamilton’s Principle in its Application to the Solution of Problems of Mechanics of Solid Bodies. His main results in the theory of elasticity are contained in his classic work On One Application of the Theory of Functions of Complex Variables to the Plane Problem of the Mathematical Theory of Elasticity.
In 1931 Kolosov was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R (now the Russian Academy of Sciences).
Kolosov probably was married, but nothing is known about his family.
