Alexander John Smits (born December 25, 1948) is an Australian-American engineer and academic who is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Emeritus, at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. He is also the director of the

Gas dynamics Compressible flow (or gas dynamics) is the branch of fluid mechanics that deals with flows having significant changes in fluid density. While all flows are compressible, flows are usually treated as being incompressible when the Mach number (the r ...

laboratory at Princeton. Smits received his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, Australia in 1970. Subsequently he received his Ph.D. from Melbourne in 1975. Smits is an expert in the areas of

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

and

fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids ( liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. It has applications in a wide range of disciplines, including mechanical, aerospace, civil, chemical and bio ...

, and is also the chief editor of Efluids.com, a website designed for students and researchers to share information about fluids. He is also currently an associate editor for the

Journal of Fluid Mechanics The ''Journal of Fluid Mechanics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of fluid mechanics. It publishes original work on theoretical, computational, and experimental aspects of the subject. The journal is published by Cambridge Uni ...

and the Journal of Turbulence. Smits is the head of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Princeton University. Smits was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

in 2011 for contributions to the measurement and understanding of turbulent flows, fluids engineering, and education. Also, he became a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 2020. He was awarded the

Batchelor Prize The Batchelor Prize is an award presented once every four years by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) for outstanding research in fluid dynamics. The prize of $25,000 is sponsored by the Journal of Fluid Mechanics ...

in 2020 for his significant research contributions to fluid mechanics over the previous decade. Smits was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the

2023 Australia Day Honours The 2023 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2023 by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley. The Australia ...

for "distinguished service to aerospace engineering, particularly in the field of fluid dynamics, and to tertiary education".

References in Pop Culture

Smits was referenced in an episode of

Numb3rs ''Numbers'' (stylized as ''NUMB3RS'') is an American crime drama television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010, for six seasons and 118 episodes. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton ...

, in which it was stated (with regard to fluid dynamics) that "there is some amazing work done by

Prandtl Ludwig Prandtl (4 February 1875 – 15 August 1953) was a German fluid dynamicist, physicist and aerospace scientist. He was a pioneer in the development of rigorous systematic mathematical analyses which he used for underlying the science of ...

Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...

, and

Smits Smits is a Dutch surname that is considered a variant of the more common Smit surname.Citation: Meertens Institute: Smit. The name is an old plural of Smid (blacksmith), though the plural in modern Dutch would be Smeden. Frequency of occurrence ...

Bibliography

Alexander Smits, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Chair

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smits, Alexander 1948 births Living people Australian mechanical engineers Princeton University faculty University of Melbourne alumni Engineers from Amsterdam Dutch emigrants to Australia Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Officers of the Order of Australia