Milton Van Dyke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1922-08-01)August 1, 1922 Chicago, U.S. |
| Died | May 10, 2010(2010-05-10) (aged 87) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University California Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Fluid dynamics Van Dyke flows |
| Awards | •Fulbright Award for Research (1954)[1] •Guggenheim Fellowship (1954)[2] •Otto Laporte Award (APS, 1986)[3] • Fluid Dynamics Award (AIAA, 1997)[4] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Fluid dynamics |
| Institutions | Stanford University |
| Thesis | A Study Of Second-Order Supersonic Flow (1949) |
| Doctoral advisor | Paco Lagerstrom |
| Doctoral students | Ali H. Nayfeh Ramesh K. Agarwal |
Milton Denman Van Dyke (August 1, 1922 – May 10, 2010) was Professor of the Department ofAeronautics andAstronautics atStanford University.[5] He was known for his work influid dynamics, especially with respect to the use ofperturbation analysis inaerodynamics. His often-cited bookAn Album of Fluid Motion presents a collection of about 400 selectedblack-and-white photographs offlow visualization in experiments, received – on his request – from researchers all over the world.[6]
Together withBill Sears, Milton founded theAnnual Review of Fluid Mechanics, in 1969,[6] for which he was aneditor until 2000.[5]
He was the son of James and Ruth (Barr) Van Dyke.[7]
He studied Engineering Sciences atHarvard University, from 1940 until 1943. Thereafter he started working atNACAAmes Laboratory. After the Second World War, Milton went toCaltech, to obtain his MS in 1947 andPhD (magna cum laude) in 1949. A second period at Ames Laboratory followed. During this period, Milton was awarded aGuggenheim fellowship andFulbright grant, which he used to spend the 1954–55 academic year working withGeorge Batchelor atCambridge University. He was a visiting professor at the University of Paris in the 1958–59 academic year,[7] then in 1959 he was appointed as a professor at the new Aerodynamics department of Stanford University.[6][8]
He married Sylvia Jean Agard Adams in 1962 and the couple would eventually have six children, three of whom were triplets.[7] In 1976, he was elected to theNational Academy of Engineering.[9]
He was the director of Parabolic Press, an independent publisher of engineering books whose releases included a second edition of his ownPerturbation Methods in Fluid Mechanics (1975) andAn album of fluid motion (1982). He insisted on keeping the prices low so that students could afford the books.[10][5]
The first issue in 2014 of theJournal of Engineering Mathematics was a special issue to honour Milton Van Dyke and his work.[11]
