- Year of nomination: 2007
- Facility: Department of Structural Engineering [facility name no longer in use]
- E-mail: giulio.maier@polimi.it
Professor Maier was full professor of Construction Science at Politecnico di Milano from 1970 up to his retirement. In his long and successful career, he made fundamental contributions to the development of different sectors in the field of computational mechanics of structures, as shown by his output of 9 books and over 250 articles. His contributions to the development of the method of contour and mathematical programming elements, both in plasticity theory and in structural optimisation, deserve particular mention.
His national and international fame is demonstrated by the Honorary Doctoral Degrees awarded to him by three renowned foreign universities and by various other awards, such as the Feltrinelli Award of the Accademia dei Lincei (1981), the Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1984) and the Koiter Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2000). With regard to the latter, it is worth noting that he was the only Italian to receive this prestigious recognition, which has been awarded to other such well-renowned scholars in the field of Solid Mechanics as Zenon Mròz, Charles Steele, Viggo Tvergaard and David Owen.
He is a member of prestigious academies in Italy and abroad, including notably the Accademia dei Lincei (of which he is an honorary member), the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Engineering. He was President of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (AIMETA) and editor of the journal of this association (Meccanica). He served on the editorial board of 19 international journals, as well as being Associate Editor of the European Journal of Mechanics - A/Solids.
His active scientific work did not prevent him from holding organisational positions within Politecnico di Milano, both as Head of the Institute of Construction Science and Technology for three years and as Co-ordinator of the PhD in Structural Engineering from 1993 to 2002. He was for a long time the promoter and co-ordinator of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the Faculty of Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, to which he dedicated himself with his usual passion.
Finally, since 2005 he has been Resident Rector of the International Centre of Mechanical Sciences (CISM) in Udine.
Extract from the 2007 nomination statement