Fascination with Fluids and Flows
Howard A. Stone
Princeton University
USA
Abstract:
Fluid mechanics is often viewed as a mature scientific discipline. One of the remarkable aspects of the subject is its relevance to an enormous variety of phenomena. The designs of airplanes, sailing vessels, birds, insects, and fish are all largely determined by principles of fluid mechanics. The physiology of our bodies is impacted by fluid dynamics principles, whether we consider the movement of red blood cells that squeeze through the small capillaries of the microcirculation or the delivery of drugs orally or in the blood stream. Almost all industrial processing requires handling materials in the fluid state, whether we are making large meter-scale sheets of glass for the world's skyscrapers or depositing thin, submicron thick films for coatings and lithographic processes. At the largest scales of life on earth we need to understand the fluid movements of air in the atmosphere, water in the oceans, and ice sheets in the arctic regions. Thus, the eternal relevance of fluid mechanics is linked to understanding all of life's processes, spanning those that are natural, industrial, and planetary.
The subject is also one with surprises that provide intellectual challenges and important bridges to other disciplines. We will illustrate some of these themes in the world of small-scale viscous flows, such as arise when developing and utilizing the new technologies of microfluidics, when understanding mechanotransduction processes important to the function of red blood cells, and hydrodynamic effects important to the formation of biofilms. In this way we will gain exposure to a world of ideas relevant to industry, physiology, and environmental health.
Brief Biography
Professor Howard A. Stone received the Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Davis in 1982 and the PhD in Chemical Engineering from Caltech in 1988. Following a postdoctoral year in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, in 1989 he joined the faculty of the (now) School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where he eventually became the Vicky Joseph Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics. In 1994 he received both the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Award and the Phi Beta Kappa teaching Prize, which are the only two teaching awards given to faculty in Harvard College. In 2000 Professor Stone was named a Harvard College Professor for his contributions to undergraduate education. Recently he moved to Princeton University where he is Donald R. Dixon '69 and Elizabeth W. Dixon Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Professor Stone's research interests are in fluid dynamics, especially as they arise in research and applications at the interface of engineering, chemistry and physics. He has received the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), and is past Chair of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the APS. For ten years he served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and is currently on the editorial boards of New Journal of Physics and Physics of Fluids and the advisory board of Soft Matter. He is the first recipient of the G.K. Batchelor Prize in Fluid Dynamics, which was awarded in August 2008. In 2009 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.