Jerald LaVerne Ericksen (December 20, 1924 – June 11, 2021) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

specializing in

continuum mechanics Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such m ...

Biography

Ericksen was born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. His father Adolf worked at a Portland

creamery A creamery is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream re ...

and became adept at judging the quality of

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

. Later his father acquired a small creamery in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

where the family moved. Jerald's brother A. Erwin was born there, and Jerald helped out in the creamery. In the fall of 1942 he entered Oregon State College in Corvallis. When he reached eighteen years of age he enlisted in the

U. S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

. He was trained as an officer, first at

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...

Pocatello Pocatello () is the county seat of and largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the ...

, and then was transferred to

NROTC The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program is a college-based, commissioned officer training program of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Origins A pilot Naval Reserve unit was established in September 19 ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. During his 85.5 weeks of training he met his future wife Marion Pook. On active duty he was part of

Landing Craft Infantry The Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) were several classes of landing craft used to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches during the Second World War. They were developed in response to a British request for seagoing amphibious assault s ...

, assigned the task of launching rockets to clear beaches for invasion in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. On the termination of hostilities he was shipped back to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. He married Marion on February 24, 1946 and resigned from the service that summer. Ericksen enrolled in University of Washington and was able to obtain his bachelor's degree in a year due to credits accumulated in his Navy training. He was a

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

major and had a minor in Naval Science. His first graduate school was

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

where he had

Howard Eves Howard Whitley Eves (10 January 1911, New Jersey – 6 June 2004) was an American mathematician, known for his work in geometry and the history of mathematics. Eves received his B.S. from the University of Virginia, an M.A. from Harvard Universi ...

as an advisor. Ericksen went on to

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

seeking to find applications, besides teaching, for his mathematical skill. There he came under the influence of David Gilbarg, Vaclav Hlavaty,

Eberhard Hopf Eberhard Frederich Ferdinand Hopf (April 4, 1902 in Salzburg, Austria-Hungary – July 24, 1983 in Bloomington, Indiana, USA) was a mathematician and astronomer, one of the founding fathers of ergodic theory and a pioneer of bifurcation theory who ...

, and

Max Zorn Max August Zorn (; June 6, 1906 – March 9, 1993) was a German mathematician. He was an algebraist, group theorist, and numerical analyst. He is best known for Zorn's lemma, a method used in set theory that is applicable to a wide range of ...

. Other influences included Bill Gustin, Tracie Thomas, and George Whaples. Most significantly, it was in Bloomington that he began to work with

Clifford Truesdell Clifford Ambrose Truesdell III (February 18, 1919 – January 14, 2000) was an American mathematician, natural philosopher, and historian of science. Life Truesdell was born in Los Angeles, California. After high school, he spent two years in Eur ...

who was criticizing continuum theories. In his autobiography of 2005, Ericksen says "since then I have been trying to better understand the formulation of and techniques for exploring continuum theories." Ericksen obtained his Ph.D. in 1951. Jerald and Marion began their family with daughter Lynn in Bloomington. Research in continuum mechanics, for the

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

, was conducted by a group including Ericksen, Truesdell, William Saenz, Richard Toupin, and

Ronald Rivlin Ronald Samuel Rivlin (6 May 1915 in London – 4 October 2005) was a British-American physicist, mathematician, rheologist and a noted expert on rubber.''New York Times'' November 25, 2005 "Ronald Rivlin, 90, Expert on Properties of Rubber, Dies ...

. Ericksen began to partake in the

Society of Rheology The Society of Rheology is an American professional society formed in December, 1929 to represent scientists and technologists working in the field of rheology, the science of the deformation and flow of matter. Current membership is of the order ...

and acted as a consultant to a polymer group in the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

. He explained that

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

officials interrogated him about

communist sympathizer The term ''fellow traveller'' (also ''fellow traveler'') identifies a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member of that o ...

s in the era of

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

. On the other hand, he experienced joy at the birth of his son Randy. In 1957 Ericksen received an offer from the Mechanical Engineering department of

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. After a time Truesdell also moved to Johns Hopkins. A weekly seminar was organized in continuum mechanics where scholars could practice their oral presentations. Ericksen became interested in anisotropic liquids and began to develop a "properly invariant theory of a fluid with a single preferred direction". This topic attracted the interest of scientists like Bernard Coleman,

James Ferguson James Ferguson may refer to: Entertainment * Jim Ferguson (born 1948), American jazz and classical guitarist * Jim Ferguson, American guitarist, past member of Lotion * Jim Ferguson, American movie critic, Board of Directors member for the Broadca ...

, and

Frank Matthews Leslie Professor Frank Matthews Leslie FRS FRSE (8 March 1935 – 15 June 2000) was a Scottish mathematical physicist specializing in continuum mechanics. He is remembered for the Ericksen–Leslie Theory which he developed with Jerald Ericksen to d ...

who were attempting to exploit

liquid crystal Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. T ...

s. When Leslie joined him at Johns Hopkins they formed a small group with post-doctoral associates to study liquid crystals. In 1982 Ericksen moved to

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

where he took a joint appointment in the School of Mathematics and the Aerospace and Mechanics Department. Starting with a lecture to a general audience he was able to start a graduate course in liquid crystals. Then with Roger Fosdick a seminar or course in continuum mechanics was developed. Further, Ericksen taught a course in Thermodynamics of Solids, which he developed into a

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...

published in 1998. He was also instrumental in the year- long program in continuum physics and

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

s held by the

Institute for Mathematics and its Applications The Institute for Mathematics and its Applications located at the University of Minnesota is an organization established in 1982 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States. Mission The primary mission of the IMA is to increase ...

where Millard Beatty was a visitor. During his academic career he served on the editorial boards of the

Journal of Rational Mechanics and Analysis The ''Indiana University Mathematics Journal'' is a journal of mathematics published by Indiana University. Its first volume was published in 1952, under the name ''Journal of Rational Mechanics and Analysis'' and edited by Zachery D. Paden and Cl ...

Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis The ''Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis'' is a scientific journal that is devoted to research in mechanics as a deductive, mathematical science. The current editors in chief of the journal are Felix Otto and Vladimir Sverak. It was fou ...

Journal of Elasticity ''Journal of Elasticity: The Physical and Mathematical Science of Solids'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of elasticity. It is published seven times a year by Springer Science+Business Media. The editor-in-chief is Roger ...

, and the ''International Journal of Solids and Structures''. In 1968 he was awarded the

Bingham Medal The Bingham Medal is an annual award for outstanding contributions to the field of rheology awarded at the Annual Meeting of The Society of Rheology. It was instituted in 1948 by the society to commemorate Eugene C. Bingham (1878–1945). List o ...

. In 1979 he was awarded the

Timoshenko Medal The Timoshenko Medal is an award given annually by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to an individual "in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of applied mechanics." The Timoshenko Medal, widely regarded as th ...

. In 2010 the International Society for the Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics awarded to him the first ISIMM Prize for his exceptional contributions towards building a link between mathematics and mechanics. He received an Honorary Doctorate from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

in July 1988. Ericksen retired at age 65 and moved with Marion to

Florence, Oregon Florence is a coastal city in Lane County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. It lies at the mouth of the Siuslaw River on the Pacific Ocean and about midway between Newport and Coos Bay along U.S. Route 101. As of the 2020 census, the city had a to ...

. He died in June 2021 at the age of 96.Department Mourns the Loss of Professor Emeritus Jerald Ericksen
/ref>

References

External links

* J. L. Ericksen (1979
Timoshenko Acceptance Speech
at iMechanica.org site for

mechanician A mechanician is an engineer or a scientist working in the field of mechanics, or in a related or sub-field: engineering or computational mechanics, applied mechanics, geomechanics, biomechanics, and mechanics of materials. Names other than mechan ...

s. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ericksen, Jerald 1924 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians Mathematical physicists Rheologists Indiana University Bloomington alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Liquid crystals Fluid dynamicists Scientists from Portland, Oregon People from Vancouver, Washington People from Florence, Oregon Military personnel from Portland, Oregon United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy officers

Biography

References

Further reading

External links