Ferdinand Beer

Ferdinand P. Beer was a French-born engineer and professor renowned for his influential textbooks in mechanics, including Mechanics for Engineers: Statics and Dynamics, Vector Mechanics for Engineers, and Mechanics of Materials, which have been translated into multiple languages. He joined Lehigh University in 1947, becoming the first chairman of the Department of Mechanics in 1957, and played a key role in calming campus tensions as chairman of the University Forum in 1970-1971. Educated with an M.S. from the Sorbonne and Sc.D. from the University of Geneva, he taught at Lehigh until 1983.