Ottomar Maddison

Ottomar Julius Martin Maddison (31 March 1879 – 30 January 1959) was an Estonian civil engineer, engineering scientist and professor whose career spanned bridge design in the late Russian Empire and the development of higher technical education in Estonia. He designed major railway bridges and viaducts in the Russian Empire, later became one of the central figures in Estonian engineering education, and was elected a full member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences in 1946.

He taught at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers, the University of Tartu, and what became Tallinn University of Technology. His scholarly work ranged from structural and bridge mechanics to the study of building materials; in the 1940s he became particularly associated with research on the use of oil shale ash as a cementing material in construction. Before entering higher education he also obtained a shoemaker's apprentice certificate. His doctoral dissertation, completed at the same institution, dealt with the stability of bridge-pier foundations in homogeneous soil; he received the degree of Doctor of Engineering on 27 October 1918.

For his engineering work in the Russian Empire, Maddison received the Order of Saint Stanislaus, 3rd Class, in 1913 and the Order of Saint Anna, 3rd Class, in 1915.

At the same time, Maddison continued practical engineering work. After returning to Estonia he designed a railway bridge over the Narva River, later destroyed during the Second World War. In 1930 he designed reinforced-concrete arch bridges on the Tartu–Petseri railway over the Ahja and Võhandu rivers; these were described as the first arch bridges on an Estonian railway line. Among his known works are Tehniline mehaanika. II. 3. jagu (1928), its supplementary booklet on curved bars, and Tehnilise mehaanika harjutus-ülesanded (1934).

In 1940, Maddison began research on the use of oil-shale ash as a binding agent in construction. Although interrupted by the war, this work resumed afterward and became one of his best-known research contributions. In 1945 he was granted the title of Honoured Scientist of the Estonian SSR, and in 1946 he was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR, one of the academy's first full members after its foundation.

He died in Tallinn on 30 January 1959 and was buried at Metsakalmistu. In 1971, the largest lecture hall of the civil engineering faculty at Tallinn University of Technology was named in his honour.

Selected works Особенности расчета железнодорожных мостов, расположенных на закруглениях (1917) Tehniline mehaanika. II. 3. jagu (1928) Tehniline mehaanika. II. Kolmas jagu, Lisa: Kõverad vardad väikese kõverusega (1928) Tehnilise mehaanika harjutus-ülesanded (1934)