Paco Lagerstrom

Paco Axel Lagerstrom ( born February 24, 1914 in Oskarshamn, † 16 February 1989 in Pasadena, California ) was a Swedish- American applied mathematician, known for his contributions to aerodynamics.

Life

Lagerstrom studied mathematics at the University of Stockholm with the candidate 's degree in 1935 and the licentiate 's degree in 1939 and in 1942 received his doctorate at Princeton University at Salomon Bochner ( Measure and integral in Partially ordered spaces ). He was from 1941 to 1944 Instructor at Princeton and then research engineer at Douglas Aircraft, where he focused on aerodynamic problems. 1946 brought him to the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory Hans Liepmann ( Galcit ) of Caltech. In 1952 he became Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Applied Mathematics in 1967 at Caltech.

1960/61, he was a Guggenheim visiting professor at the Sorbonne. He was also a consultant to TRW Inc. At Caltech, he developed in the 1940s, partly with his doctoral Julian Cole and Leon Trilling asymptotic and perturbative developments of the solutions of the Navier -Stokes equation for various limiting cases specifically to the creation of the boundary layer theory. Lagerstrom initiated at Caltech a theorist group, which then had a leading position in the development of mathematical methods for the investigation of transonic and supersonic flow, in the then incipient jet and rocket age is an important area of applied mathematics.

His doctoral include Julian Cole, Athanassios S. Fokas, Theodore Yao - Tsu Wu, Leon Trilling, Pieter Wesseling, Saul Kaplun.

Writings (selection )

• Fluid Mechanics and Singular Perturbations. A Collection of Papers. Academic Press, New York 1967.
• Laminar Flow Theory. University Press, Princeton, N. J. 1996, ISBN 0-691-02598-3.
• Matched Asymptotic Expansions. Ideas And Techniques (Applied Mathematical Sciences, Vol 76). Springer Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-540-96811-3.