1. Siméon Denis Poisson (1781-1840)

2. Brief Biography Originally forced to study medicine. began to study mathematics in 1798 at the Ecole Polytechnique. Assistant of Laplace and Lagrange (became close friends). Published about 400 mathematical works including applications to statistics, mechanics, electricity, magnetism, and astronomy. His “Traite de mecanique” published in 1811 and again in 1833 was the standard work on mechanics for many years.

3. Important contributions: Poisson’s distribution in statistics. Poisson's integral. Advances in Fourier series. Poisson's equation in potential theory Poisson brackets in differential equations Poisson's ratio in elasticity Poisson's constant in electricity.

4. Rod Lakes http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/~lakes/Poisson.html Are there structures with negative Poisson ratio ?

5. http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/~lakes/Poisson.html