Philip Saffman

Philip Geoffrey Saffman ( born March 19, 1931 in Leeds, † August 17 2008 in Los Angeles ) was a British applied mathematician who was an expert on hydrodynamics.

Saffman was the son of a lawyer and studied at Cambridge University with a bachelor 's degree (1953) and a PhD in Applied Mathematics (1956 ) GK Batchelor. After that, he was in Cambridge and in 1958 Lecturer Research Fellow at Trinity College. 1960 to 1964 he was a Reader at King's College London. From 1964 he was professor of hydrodynamics at Caltech, from 1995 as Theodore von Karman Professor. In 2001, he went into retirement.

He dealt with dynamics of vortices ( vortices ), flow of viscous fluids, turbulence, interaction of fluid waves. According to him and Geoffrey Ingram Taylor Saffman -Taylor instabilities are named on the border of two liquids of different viscosity ( with typical finger formation). The effect has applications in the oil. With Max Delbruck, he published a theory of diffusion of proteins in membranes.

His expertise for vortices in fluids and gases, he has also been involved evaluating a number of plane crashes, for example, when Delta Air Lines Flight 191 (1985) in Dallas. He calculated how long it takes until the trailing vortices during takeoff and landing of passenger aircraft dissolve with application to safe distances during takeoff and landing.

1970/71 he was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1994 he received the Otto Laporte Award. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society (1988).

He was married to Ruth Arion since 1954 and had three children.

Writings

• Vortex Dynamics, Cambridge University Press 1995