Brian Edward Launder, FRS,

FREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK a ...

(born 20 July 1939) is a Professor of

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, United Kingdom. He is known for his work in the field of turbulent flows in general and

turbulence modelling Turbulence modeling is the construction and use of a mathematical model to predict the effects of turbulence. Turbulent flows are commonplace in most real life scenarios, including the flow of blood through the cardiovascular system, the airflow ...

in particular. In 1994, he became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

Education and career

Launder received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, London where he came first in the class and won the Bramwell Medal. He then joined

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

for his master's degree and went on to take a doctoral degree for experimental work on

boundary layer In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary condi ...

s. After completion the Sc.D., Launder returned to Imperial College in 1964 to join the faculty as lecturer and later became the Reader in

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 ...

. After serving at Imperial College for 12 years, Launder went to the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

in 1976 where he served as Professor of Mechanical Engineering for four years. In 1980, he returned to the UK and joined

University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

as the head of the Thermo-Fluids Division. a position he discharged for 16 years as well as two terms as Head of Department

Work and recognition

Launder's main focus of research is the

for

computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate th ...

. The

k

\epsilon

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

introduced by W. P. Jones and Launder is considered to be the most popular

k

\epsilon

model in the turbulence modelling community. They introduced this model in the 1972 paper titled "''The prediction of laminarization with a two-equation model of turbulence''" and is often referred to as the Standard

k

\epsilon

model. Launder also developed, along with his co-workers Gordon J. Reece and Wolfgang Rodi, a second order closure model, known as Launder–Reece–Rodi model (1975), which became one of the most thoroughly tested turbulence models. In recognition of his contribution to

, Launder has been admitted as a

and the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

. He has also received many international honours including honorary degrees from three European universities. Between 2000 and 2006, he served as the Regional Director of the

Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research is an organisation based in the United Kingdom that brings together scientists, economists, engineers and social scientists to "research, assess and communicate from a distinct trans-disciplinary p ...

Selected books

* B. E. Launder and D. B. Spalding, ''Mathematical Models of Turbulence'', Academic Press (1972). * B. E. Launder and N. D. Sandham, ''Closure Strategies for Turbulent and Transitional Flows'', Cambridge University Press (2002). *Brian Launder and J. Michael T. Thompson: Geo-engineering climate change. Environmental necessity or Pandora's box?. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge 2010. *Kemal Hanjalic and Brian Launder: Modelling turbulence in engineering and the environment. Second-moment routes to closure. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Launder, Brian Living people 1939 births Alumni of Imperial College London Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Academics of Imperial College London University of California, Davis faculty Academics of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology Fluid dynamicists Fellows of the Royal Society