Walter Noll (January 7, 1925 June 6, 2017) was a mathematician, and Professor Emeritus at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. He is best known for developing mathematical tools of

classical mechanics Classical mechanics is a physical theory describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, and astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. For objects governed by classical ...

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of the ...

, and

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

Born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, Noll had his school education in a suburb of Berlin. In 1954, Noll earned a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

under Clifford Truesdell. His thesis "On the Continuity of the Solid and Fluid States" was published both in '' Journal of Rational Mechanics and Analysis'' and in one of Truesdell's books. Noll thanks

Jerald Ericksen Jerald LaVerne Ericksen (December 20, 1924 – June 11, 2021) was an American mathematician specializing in continuum mechanics. Biography Ericksen was born in Portland, Oregon. His father Adolf worked at a Portland creamery and became adept a ...

for his critical input to the thesis. Noll has served as a visiting professor at the

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 ...

, the

University of Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

, the

Israel Institute of Technology Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine in Nancy, the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

, the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...

, and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

. Noll died on June 6, 2017 at the age of 92.

Principle of material objectivity

, Noll introduced the so-called principle of material objectivity, which states that the constitutive laws governing the internal conditions of a physical system and the interactions between its parts should not depend on whatever external

frame of reference In physics and astronomy, a frame of reference (or reference frame) is an abstract coordinate system whose origin, orientation, and scale are specified by a set of reference points― geometric points whose position is identified both mathema ...

is used to describe them. "Principle of material objectivity" is now an obsolete term that has been replaced by principle of material frame-indifference.Miroslav Šilhavý, ''The Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Continuous Media'', Springer, 1997
"The Principle of Material Frame Indifference"

Books

*Noll, Walter and Truesdell, Clifford (1965) ''The Non-Linear Field Theories of Mechanics''. Springer-Verlag, New York. . *Noll, Walter; Coleman, B. D.; and Markovitz, H. (1966) ''Viscometric Flows of Non-Newtonian Fluids, Theory and Experiment''. Springer-Verlag, New York.

ASIN Asin Thottumkal (born 26 October 1985), known mononymously as Asin, is a former Indian actress who appeared predominantly in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. She is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. She has received three Filmfare Awards. She beg ...

B0006BN90G. *Noll, Walter (1974) ''Foundations of Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Selected Papers''. Springer-Verlag, New York. . *Noll, Walter (1987) ''Finite-Dimensional Spaces: Algebra, Geometry, and Analysis, Vol. I''. Kluwer Academic Publishers. . A corrected version (2006) is published on Professor Noll's website. *Noll, Walter (2004) ''Five Contributions to Natural Philosophy''. Published on Professor Noll's website

References

External links

*
Professor Noll's Carnegie Mellon home pageProfessor Noll's websiteObituary: Walter Noll, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 11, 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noll, Walter 2017 deaths 1925 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Carnegie Mellon University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society German emigrants to the United States Indiana University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Karlsruhe Institute of Technology faculty Scientists from Berlin University of Pavia faculty University of Pisa faculty