Paul Andrews Libby (September 4, 1921 – November 2, 2021) was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, a specialist in the field of

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combusti ...

and

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

Biography

Libby received his bachelor's degree in 1942 and obtained his PhD in 1948, both from

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

. He served in the United States Navy during World War II in between his Bachelors and Doctorate degrees; he was a Junior Grade Lieutenant when discharged. He joined the faculty of

and advanced to the rank of Professor. At that time, the famous aerodynamicist

Antonio Ferri Antonio Ferri (5 April 1912 – 28 December 1975) was an Italian scientist, prominent in the field of aerodynamics, with a specialization in hypersonic and supersonic flight. Born in 1912 in Norcia, Italy, from 1937 he conducted research in Guid ...

, a friend of

Theodore von Kármán Theodore von Kármán ( hu, ( szőllőskislaki) Kármán Tódor ; born Tivadar Mihály Kármán; 11 May 18816 May 1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronaut ...

, joined the

. Libby worked with Ferri as an assistant for ten years. In 1962, when

Sol Penner Stanford Solomon Penner (5 July 1921 – 15 July 2016) also known as Sol Penner, was a German-American scientist and engineer, a major figure in combustion physics, especially in rocket engines, and a founder of the Engineering program at Universit ...

was looking for faculty for the newly-founded School of Engineering at the

, Libby was recommended to Penner by von Kármán. He joined

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

in 1964 as one of the 10 founding faculty members. He served as department chair from 1973 to 1976. He also served as Acting Dean and Associate Dean of Graduate affairs. Libby died in

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

, on November 2, 2021, at the age of 100.

Research

Libby's research focused on a broad range of topics in fluid dynamics including boundary layers, turbulence, aerothermochemistry and combustion. The structure of

shock waves In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a med ...

was exactly solved by Morduchow and Libby in 1949, demonstrating that the entropy of the gas goes through a maximum upon crossing the shock wave. He, along with

Keith Stewartson Keith Stewartson (20 September 1925 – 7 May 1983) was an English mathematician and fellow of the Royal Society. Early life The youngest of three children, Stewartson was born to an English baker in 1925. He was raised in Billingham, County Dur ...

, were the first to identify the eigensolutions of boundary layer equations and to study the uniqueness of the boundary-layer solutions. Homann flow, axisymmetric stagnation point flows, were generalized by Libby. Paul Libby, along with Kenneth Bray, discovered an important phenomenon known as Counter-gradient diffusion in turbulent flames, in a series of papers in the '80s which are considered important contributions to our understanding of turbulent combustion.

Publications

He produced more than 200 journal publications throughout his career. He authored numerous books and monographs, which include ''An Introduction to Turbulence'', ''Turbulent Reacting Flows'' (co-authored with

Forman A. Williams Forman Arthur Williams (born January 12, 1934) is an American academic in the field of combustion and aerospace engineering who is Emeritus Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California San Diego. Education Wil ...

), ''Space Flight and Re-Entry Trajectories'', ''A Theoretical Analysis of the Turbulent Mixing of Reactive Gases with Application to the Supersonic Combustion of Hydrogen'', ''Some Perturbation Solutions in Laminar Boundary Layer Theory'', and ''Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Supersonic Combustion''.

Honors

Libby 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 1999 for contributions as a researcher, author, and educator who advanced knowledge of fluid dynamics, turbulence, and combustion through theoretical analyses. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and a Guest Fellow of the British Royal Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Libby, Paul A 1921 births 2021 deaths American centenarians Men centenarians Engineers from California Fellows of the American Physical Society Fluid dynamicists People from Mineola, New York Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Military personnel from New York (state) Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni Polytechnic Institute of New York University faculty University of California, San Diego faculty United States Navy officers United States Navy personnel of World War II

Biography

Research

Publications

Honors

See also

References