Mustafa İnan

Mustafa İnan (1911–1967) was a Turkish civil engineering academic.

Life He was born in Adana. His mother was Rabia and father was Hüseyin Avni. At the end of the First World War, Adana was occupied by the French forces and his family had to move to Konya. At the end of the Turkish War of Independence the family returned to Adana and Mustafa continued his secondary education in Adana. In 1931 he took the first place in the entrance examinations of the Istanbul Technical University (then known as Engineering School). Later he was sent to Switzerland for advanced studies in the ETH Zurich (German: Eidgenössische Technische). After his doctorate thesis 1941, he returned to Turkey to continue academic studies in the Engineering School. In 1944, the school was renamed Istanbul Technical University and he became the associate professor of Mechanics and Strength.

After compulsory military service in 1944, he married Jale İnan, the first female archaeologist in Turkey. In 1945, he became the professor, in 1954–1957 term he became the dean of the Civil engineering faculty and in 1957–1959 term the rector of the university. In 1963, he was elected as a member of the science committee of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (known as TÜBİTAK) Later he became the chairman of the committee. On 5 August 1967 he died in Freiburg, Germany. Five days later, following a ceremony in the university, he was buried in the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery in Istanbul.

Academic life In 1943, he published his paper about Vrendel beams and this paper is considered as the very first Turkish engineering paper published in a foreign country. TÜBİTAK also asked Oğuz Atay, a well-known author and a student of İnan, to write a book about İnan. The book titled Bir Blim Adamının Romanı (English: The Novel of a Scientist) was published in 1975. A viaduct on the Ankara–Istanbul motorway is named after him as well as Istanbul Technical University's central library.

His collection, donated by his son Hüseyin İnan, was digitized and made freely accessible by Istanbul Technical University Mustafa İnan Library.

Books and translations Books Source: 1948: Elasto-Mekanikte Başlangıç Değerleri Metodu ve Taşıma Matrisi (English: The Method of Initial Values and the Carryover Matrix in Elastomechanics) 1966: Elastik Çubukların Genel Teorisi (English: General Theory of Elastic Bars) 1967: Cisimlerin Mukavemeti (English: Strength of Materials) 1969: Düzlemde Elastisite Teorisi (English: Plane Theory of Elasticity) – (Posthumously published.)

Translations to Turkish 1948: Stephen Timoshenko: Strength of Materials (Vol I & II) 1950: Stephen Timoshenko: Elastic Planes and Shells 1950: Theodor Pöschl: Elementary Strength