James Lighthill | |
|---|---|
 Michael James Lighthill | |
| Born | Michael James Lighthill (1924-01-23)23 January 1924 Paris, France |
| Died | 17 July 1998(1998-07-17) (aged 74) |
| Citizenship | British |
| Education | Winchester College |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Known for | Lighthill report Lighthill's equation Lighthill's eighth power law Lighthill mechanism Aeroacoustics Fluid dynamics |
| Awards | Timoshenko Medal (1963) Royal Medal (1964) Elliott Cresson Medal (1975) Naylor Prize and Lectureship (1977) IMA Gold Medal (1982) Otto Laporte Award (1984) Copley Medal (1998) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics, Acoustics |
| Institutions | University of Manchester University College London University of Cambridge Imperial College London |
| Doctoral advisor | Sydney Goldstein[1] |
| Doctoral students | Gerald B. Whitham[1] |
| Other notable students | Steve Furber[2] |
Sir Michael James LighthillFRS FRAeS[3] (23 January 1924 – 17 July 1998) was a Britishapplied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field ofaeroacoustics[4][1][5][6][7] and for writing theLighthill report in 1973, which pessimistically stated that "In no part of the field (of AI) have the discoveries made so far produced the major impact that was then promised", contributing to the gloomy climate ofAI winter.[8]
James Lighthill was born to Ernest Balzar Lichtenberg and Marjorie Holmes: anAlsatian mining engineer who changed his name to Lighthill in 1917, and the daughter of an engineer. The family lived in Paris until 1927, when the father retired and returned to live in England. As a young man, James Lighthill was known as Michael Lighthill.[9]
Lighthill was educated atWinchester College, and graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree from theUniversity of Cambridge where he was an undergraduate student ofTrinity College, Cambridge in 1943.[10]
Lighthill specialised influid dynamics, and worked at theNational Physical Laboratory. Between 1946 and 1959 he wasBeyer Professor of Applied Mathematics at theUniversity of Manchester. Lighthill then moved from Manchester to become director of theRoyal Aircraft Establishment atFarnborough. There he worked on the development of television andcommunications satellites, and on the development ofcrewed spacecraft. This latter work was used in the development of theConcorde supersonic airliner.
In 1955, together withGerald B. Whitham, Lighthill set out the first comprehensive theory ofkinematic waves[11][12] (an application of themethod of characteristics), with a multitude of applications, prime among themfluid flow andtraffic flow.
Lighthill's early work included two-dimensionalaerofoil theory, andsupersonic flow aroundsolids of revolution. In addition to the dynamics of gas at high speeds, he studied shock and blast waves and introduced thesquirmer model. He is credited with founding the subject ofaeroacoustics, a subject vital to the reduction ofnoise in jet engines.Lighthill's eighth power law states that theacoustic power radiated by a jet engine is proportional to the eighthpower of the jet speed.[13] He also foundednon-linear acoustics, and showed that the same non-lineardifferential equations could model both flood waves in rivers and traffic flow in highways.[14]
In 1964 he became theRoyal Society's resident professor inImperial College London, before returning to Trinity College, Cambridge, five years later asLucasian Professor of Mathematics, a chair he held until 1979, when he was succeeded byStephen Hawking. Lighthill then becameProvost ofUniversity College London (UCL) – a post he held until 1989.
Lighthill founded theInstitute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) in 1964, alongside Professor SirBryan Thwaites. In 1968, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by theUniversity of Bath.[15] In 1972 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to theInstitution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Aquatic Animal Locomotion".[16]
In the early 1970s, partly in reaction to significant internal discord within that field, theScience Research Council (SRC), as it was then known, asked Lighthill to compile a review of academic research inArtificial Intelligence. Lighthill's report, which was published in 1973 and became known as the "Lighthill report," was highly critical of basic research in foundational areas such asrobotics andlanguage processing, and "formed the basis for the decision by the British government to end support for AI research in all but two universities",[17] starting what is sometimes referred to as the "AI winter".
In 1982, Lighthill andAlan B. Tayler were jointly awarded the first everGold Medal of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in recognition of their "outstanding contributions to mathematics and its applications over a period of years".[18] In 1983 Lighthill was awarded theLudwig Prandtl Ring from theDeutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics) for "outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace engineering".
His former students include Gerald B. Whitham[1] andSteve Furber.[2]
Lighthill was electedFRS in 1953 andFRAS in 1961.[20]
He was awarded theRoyal Medal of theRoyal Society in 1964, and theCopley Medal, also of the Royal Society, posthumously, in 1998.[20]
In 1958, Lightill was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[21]
The James Lighthill building at the University of Manchester[22] andJames Lighthill House are named in his honour.
Lighthill was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1970.[23]
In 1971 Lighthill was made knight in the New Year's Honours.[24]
In 1976, Lighthill was elected aMember of the National Academy of Sciences,[25] one of at least nine such foreign academies to elect him, including the French and Russian.[20]
In 1992, Lighthill was awarded theRayleigh Medal by theInstitute of Acoustics (United Kingdom).[26]
Lighthill was also made an honorary member of many bodies, and received twenty-four honorary doctorates.[20] He was invited to give, and delivered, many prize and plenary lectures.[20]
His hobby was open-water swimming. He died in the water in 1998 when themitral valve in his heart ruptured while he was swimming round the island ofSark, a feat which he had accomplished many times before.[27]
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics atUniversity of Manchester 1950–1959 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lucasian Professor of Mathematics atCambridge University 1969–1978 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Provost ofUniversity College London 1979–1989 | Succeeded by |