While giving a student lecture as a senior at Northeastern University, Irving Shames decided to forego the plan of entering the family engineering company and instead to become a university teacher. After receiving his Ph.D, he taught at University of Maryland, Stevens Institute of Technology, Pratt Institute, and State University of N.Y. While at Stevens, a senior professor assigned Shames the jo
b of writing up 5 chapters of junior fluids notes to replace the chosen text. Professor Shames noticed great satisfaction in this job and the notes found their way into the hands of the publishers. To the amazement of the writer, these notes received rave reviews. This was the beginning of a writing program that spans close to 49 years and continues full steam today at GW where the fourth edition of Engineering Mechanics was written , where a revised printing of Elastic and Inelastic Stress Analysis was produced, and where, finally, the third edition of Introduction to Solid Mechanics is about to go to the publisher. In all, ten books have been published in the areas of mechanics and applied mathematics. At SUNY Buffalo, Shames started from scratch programs in Aerospace Engineering, Engineering Science and Nuclear Engineering. At Buffalo Shames was twice awarded a NY grant to conduct a two- day Mechanics Workshop in engineering mechanics for interested faculty from NY state. This was then supported by NSF for a two week workshop for faculty in the U.S. When he left Buffalo, there remained no fewer than 18 faculty colleagues that he had brought to that school. While at Buffalo, Shames achieved the rank of Faculty Professor which was the equivalent of a chair. Also SUNY Central awarded him the highest academic rank possible in SUNY, namely Distinguished Teaching Professor. While at Stevens, Shames did research on high speed deformation of solids and while at Buffalo he worked with the world famous biologist, Professor J. Professor Shames came to G.W. as Distinguished Visiting Professor for two years and was then honored by the CMEE Department with a regular professorial appointment.
