Julian David Cole (April 2, 1925 – April 17, 1999) was an American mathematician. He is known for his groundbreaking work in mathematical applications to aerodynamics and transonic flow, and in non-linear equations more generally. He graduated 36 PhD students and won many of the most significant scientific honors over his career, including simultaneous election to the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering in 1976.Bluman, G. ''et al.'' (2000
''Julian D. Cole''

Notices of the American Mathematical Society ''Notices of the American Mathematical Society'' is the membership journal of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), published monthly except for the combined June/July issue. The first volume appeared in 1953. Each issue of the magazine since ...

47(4), 466-473.Cook, P., Tulin, M. and Flaherty, J. (1999
''Obituaries: Julian Cole''
,

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific soci ...

Biography

Cole earned an undergraduate degree in engineering from

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

, after which he entered

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

as a graduate student. He worked with Hans Liepmann and

Paco Lagerstrom Paco Axel Lagerstrom (February 24, 1914 – February 16, 1989) was an applied mathematician and aeronautical engineer. He was trained formally in mathematics, but worked for much of his career in aeronautical applications. He was known for wo ...

, the latter his advisor, submitting a dissertation on transonic flow in 1949. Lagerstrom and Cole continued their work, having formed a small research group at

GALCIT The Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT), was a research institute created in 1926, at first specializing in aeronautics research. In 1930, Hungarian scientist Theodore von Kármán accepted the di ...

to better understand the mathematics of fluid flow. These two, along with

Leon Trilling Leon Trilling (July 15, 1924 Białystok, Poland - April 20, 2018), an aeronautical engineer and historian of technology, was professor emeritus in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Program in Science, Technology, and Socie ...

found that flows having weak shocks could be described by

Burgers' equation Burgers' equation or Bateman–Burgers equation is a fundamental partial differential equation and convection–diffusion equation occurring in various areas of applied mathematics, such as fluid mechanics, nonlinear acoustics, gas dynamics, and tr ...

, for which Cole later found a clever transformation to solve it. Cole continued to delve deeper into this topic for the next decade. Cole took sabbatical in 1963–1964 at Harvard, where he wrote a book on this body of work: ''Perturbation Methods in Applied Mathematics''.Kevorkian, J. and Cole, J.D. (1981) ''Perturbation Methods in Applied Mathematics'', Springer-Verlag, 2nd Ed. Cole is the namesake of the

'
Julian Cole Lectureship

Awards

* Fellow,

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, ...

* Fellow,

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

* Fellow, American Physical Society *

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 of ...

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Julian Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellows of the American Physical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty Cornell University alumni California Institute of Technology alumni 1925 births 1999 deaths Fluid dynamicists