Raymond David Mindlin was a mechanician who made seminal contributions to many branches of applied mechanics, applied physics, and engineering sciences. He received the National Medal Of Science in 1979. He was born on September 17, 1906 in New York City, New York, United States. In 1924 he enrolled at Columbia University, where he received a B.A. followed by a B.S. in 1931, and in 1932 by a C.E. and the Illig medal for "proficiency in scholarship." During his graduate study, Mindlin attended a series of summer courses organized by Stephen Timoshenko in 1933, '34, and '35, and there is no doubt that the experience at the University of Michigan served to confirm him in his choice of his life's work.

In 1942 Mindlin was co-opted by the Applied Physics Laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland, an institution engaged in naval ordnance work, where he contributed in the development of the proximity fuze. For his part in its success, he was presented with the Presidential Medal for Merit. He came back to Columbia in 1945 as an associate professor, and two years later attained the rank of professor. In 1967 he was appointed James Kip Finch Professor of Applied Science until his retirement in 1975. Mindlin died on November 22, 1987, in Hanover, New Hampshire.