ROŠ, Mirko

R. was born to a Slovenian family in Zagreb, attended the gymnasium in Belgrade, where he also entered the Faculty of Technology in the academic year of 1888/89. Between 1890-95 he continued his studies at Hannover Faculty of Technology. In 1906 he graduated with honours as a civil engineer specialising in the construction of bridges.
He took a practical course during the construction of a railway in St. Gotthard (Switzerland). From 1908 he was employed as a construction and structural engineer in Oberhausen and Hannover, where he became the assistant in statics and bridge construction at the Faculty of Technology. From 1909 to 1923 he was the chief construction engineer and director of some Swiss construction companies.
In 1922 he was the initiator in the foundation of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers. R. was a lecturer at ETH-Zürich since 1923 and was appointed the director of the Institute for Materials Testing, where he was particularly involved in the fields of construction and machine industries. From 1927 to 1937 he was the Secretary General of the newly-founded International Association for Materials Research.
R. implemented a number of complex technical projects. Among others he saved the famous arched bridge in St. Gallen (Switzerland) from destruction, as well as testing two large bridges across the Sava river - at Zemun (1934) and Zagreb (1939). He was active in fields covering all basic construction materials, such as timber, stone, concrete, reinforced concrete and steel. He was among the first to systematically address the issue of materials ageing and fatigue.
R. was a member of a number of universities and faculties of technology (Brno, Budapest, Vienna, Liege, Ljubljana, Riga, Stuttgart) as well as a member of about forty European scientific and technical institutes.