Background
Warner Tjardus Koiter was born in Amsterdam.
Warner Tjardus Koiter was born in Amsterdam.
Delft University of Technology.
After primary and secondary education, he enrolled into Delft University of Technology in 1931, graduating with honours as a mechanical engineer in 1936. After graduation, he worked at the Dutch National Aeronautical Research Institute (NLL) in Amsterdam to work on airworthiness checking of aircraft structures. In 1938, he moved to the Government Patent Office and in 1939, he joined the Government Civil Aviation Office.
During the war, he worked at NLL on subjects of his own choice.
The thesis was written in Dutch, since the occupying forces only allowed theses to be written in either German or Dutch. As a consequence, its contents became only known to the broad scientific community after an English translation was edited by National Aeronautics and Space Administration 15 years later.
In 1949, he was appointed Professor of Applied Mechanics in Delft, where he stayed until his retirement in 1979. Koiter is primarily known for his asymptotic theory of initial post-buckling stability.
These investigations led to his Doctor of Philosophy thesis, On the Stability of Elastic Equilibrium, which was defended in Delft, November 1945. lieutenant was supervised by C. B. Biezeno.
Royal Society; German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]
He was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences since 1959, the Royal Society, and National Academy of Engineering (National Academy of Engineering).