By historical accounts, the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) originated when Theodore von Kármán, professor in Aachen (Germany), held a conference in Innsbruck in September 1922 to discuss questions of hydrodynamics and aerodynamics. The first IUTAM congress was held in Delft in the Netherlands in 1924. Currently, the principal objectives of the Union are to form a link between persons and organizations engaged in scientific work in all branches of theoretical and applied mechanics and related sciences, to organize international congresses of theoretical and applied mechanics and other international meetings on subjects of mechanics, and to engage in other activities meant to promote the development of mechanics as a branch of science. Today, over 500 active scientists are involved in IUTAM, representing about 50 countries and 20 affiliated international organizations.
The objective of the IRP Coss&Vita, a CNRS unit, is to promote new developments and applications and to strengthen the expertise in the field of generalized continuum mechanics. Specifically, the aim of the IRP is to bring the attention of the Paris–Rome mechanics community on the growing interest in this field in order to stimulate real breakthroughs by taking advantage of the Paris–Rome expertise in homogenization theory, statics and dynamics of heterogeneous media, multiphysics coupling, full–field measurement techniques and available computational mechanical methods.
Mines ParisTech is a French graduate school for engineering students. Since its creation in 1783, MINES ParisTech has been training very high-level engineers capable of solving complex problems in a wide variety of fields. MINES ParisTech is the leading engineering school in France in terms of the volume of contract research. Its research fields range from energy to materials, including applied mathematics, geosciences and economic and social sciences. The engineering school is also developing teaching and research chairs on emerging themes.
The Centre des Matériaux is a teaching and research center of MINES ParisTech whose activities are research, the valorization of this research, and training through research.
The Centre des Matériaux is also a Joint Research Unit of the CNRS (UMR 7633), which is part of the l'Institut des Sciences de l'Ingénierie et des Systèmes, This unit is part of the Fédération Francilienne Mécanique des Matériaux, Structures, Procédés.