Gustavo Colonnetti

Gustavo Colonnetti was an Italian mathematician and engineer who made important contributions to continuum mechanics and strength of materials. He was a Rector of the Polytechnic University of Turin and President of CNR. His theories found important applications in modern techniques of construction, such as pre-stressed concrete.
He is remembered for Colonnetti's theorem which states that in equilibrium the potential energy function is minimized.

Life

He was nominated member of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences on October 28, 1936. In 1947, during the first meeting of the RILEM in Sorrento, he was elected the first president of the society, and began its mandate in 1948. The same year, on 27 August 1947, he was elected corresponding member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei: nearly a year later, on 15 July 1948, he was elected full member.

. The "Yearbook" of the renowned Italian scientific institution, including an historical sketch of its history, the list of all past and present members as well as a wealth of information about its academic and scientific activities.
.
. The text of the address of Gaetano Fichera given on the occasion of the conferment of the laurea honoris causa in civil engineering: he describes the history of the theory of elasticity detailing particularly the contributions of Italian scientists.
. A work dealing with the contributions of Gustavo Colonnetti and Arturo Danusso to the development of Italian engineering science, presented at the Second National Conference on the History of Engineering, organized by the Associazione Italiana di Storia dell'Ingegneria, the Italian Association for the History of Engineering, and held in Napoli on April 7–8, 2008.
.
. The biographical entry about Gustavo Colonnetti in the "Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani " section of the Enciclopedia Treccani.