Philip Saffman
Encyclopedia
Philip Geoffrey Saffman was an applied mathematician
, the Theodore von Karman
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology
.
, England
, and educated at Cambridge University, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1956.
He joined the Caltech faculty in 1964 and was named the Von Karman Professor in 1995. He was a Fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and of the Royal Society
, and the recipient of the American Physical Society
's Otto Laporte Award
.
Saffman was survived by his wife, three children, and eight grandchildren.
) for the Saffman–Taylor instability in viscous fingering
of fluid boundaries, a phenomenon important for its applications in enhanced oil recovery
, and for the Saffman–Delbrück model
of protein
diffusion
in membranes which he published with his Caltech colleague and Pasadena neighbor Max Delbrück
. He made important contributions to the theory of vorticity arising from the motion of ships and aircraft through water and air; his work on wake turbulence
led the airlines to increase the minimum time between takeoffs of airplanes on the same runway. Saffman also studied the flow of spheroid
al particles in a fluid, such as bubbles in a carbonated beverage or corpuscles in blood; his work overturned previous assumptions that inertia was an important factor in these particles' motion and showed instead that Non-Newtonian
properties of fluids play a significant role.
Along with his many research papers, Saffman wrote a book, Vortex Dynamics, surveying a field to which he had been a principal contributor. Russel Caflisch writes that “This book should be read by everyone interested in vortex dynamics or fluid dynamics in general.”
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
, the Theodore von Karman
Theodore von Karman
Theodore von Kármán was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization...
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
.
Life, career and honors
Saffman was born in LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and educated at Cambridge University, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1956.
He joined the Caltech faculty in 1964 and was named the Von Karman Professor in 1995. He was a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
and of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, and the recipient of the American Physical Society
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
's Otto Laporte Award
Otto Laporte Award
The Otto Laporte Award was an annual award by the American Physical Society to "recognize outstanding contributions to fluid dynamics" and to honour Otto Laporte . It was established as the Otto Laporte Memorial Lectureship by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in 1972, and became an APS award in...
.
Saffman was survived by his wife, three children, and eight grandchildren.
Scientific work
According to Prof. Dan Meiron, Saffman “really was one of the leading figures in fluid mechanics,” and he influenced almost every subfield of that discipline. He is known (with his co-author Geoffrey Ingram TaylorGeoffrey Ingram Taylor
Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor OM was a British physicist, mathematician and expert on fluid dynamics and wave theory. His biographer and one-time student, George Batchelor, described him as "one of the most notable scientists of this century".-Biography:Taylor was born in St. John's Wood, London...
) for the Saffman–Taylor instability in viscous fingering
Viscous fingering
Viscous fingering is the formation of patterns in a morphologically unstable interface between two fluids in a porous medium or in a Hele-Shaw cell. It occurs when a less viscous fluid is injected displacing a more viscous one...
of fluid boundaries, a phenomenon important for its applications in enhanced oil recovery
Enhanced oil recovery
Enhanced Oil Recovery is a generic term for techniques for increasing the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field...
, and for the Saffman–Delbrück model
Saffman–Delbrück model
The Saffman–Delbrück model describes a lipid membrane as a thin layer of viscous fluid, surrounded by a less viscous bulk liquid. This picture was originally proposed to determine the diffusion coefficient of membrane proteins, but has also been used to describe the dynamics of fluid domains...
of protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
diffusion
Diffusion
Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is the thermal motion of all particles at temperatures above absolute zero. The rate of this movement is a function of temperature, viscosity of the fluid and the size of the particles...
in membranes which he published with his Caltech colleague and Pasadena neighbor Max Delbrück
Max Delbrück
Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück was a German-American biophysicist and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Delbrück was born in Berlin, German Empire...
. He made important contributions to the theory of vorticity arising from the motion of ships and aircraft through water and air; his work on wake turbulence
Wake turbulence
Wake turbulence is turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. This turbulence includes various components, the most important of which are wing vorticies and jetwash. Jetwash refers simply to the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent,...
led the airlines to increase the minimum time between takeoffs of airplanes on the same runway. Saffman also studied the flow of spheroid
Spheroid
A spheroid, or ellipsoid of revolution is a quadric surface obtained by rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes; in other words, an ellipsoid with two equal semi-diameters....
al particles in a fluid, such as bubbles in a carbonated beverage or corpuscles in blood; his work overturned previous assumptions that inertia was an important factor in these particles' motion and showed instead that Non-Newtonian
Non-Newtonian fluid
A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid whose flow properties differ in any way from those of Newtonian fluids. Most commonly the viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids is not independent of shear rate or shear rate history...
properties of fluids play a significant role.
Along with his many research papers, Saffman wrote a book, Vortex Dynamics, surveying a field to which he had been a principal contributor. Russel Caflisch writes that “This book should be read by everyone interested in vortex dynamics or fluid dynamics in general.”