Vagn Walfrid Ekman

Vagn Walfrid Ekman ( May 3, 1874 in Stockholm, † March 9, 1954 in Gostad near Stockaryd ) was a Swedish physicist and oceanographer.

Life

His father Fredrik Ekman Laurentz was also an oceanographer.

Walfrid first studied physics at the University of Uppsala and there came more into contact with oceanography, when he heard the lectures of Vilhelm Bjerknes on fluid dynamics.

In an expedition on the Fram, Fridtjof Nansen had discovered that icebergs not drift in the direction of the wind, but deviate at an angle of 20-40 °. At the suggestion of Bjerknes came Ekman - still a student - with the Ekman spiral to a solution of this phenomenon.

After he had completed his studies in 1902 with attainment of the doctoral degree, Ekman went to the International Laboratory for Oceanographic Research in Oslo, where he served seven years. From 1910 to 1939 he continued his theoretical and his practical work at the University of Lund continued as professor of mechanics and mathematical physics. His studies of the interaction of wind, Coriolis force and friction led to far-reaching findings on the development and behavior of ocean currents. In 1935 he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. According to Ekman Vagn Walfrid the Ekman number, the Ekman layer and the Ekman transport have been named in addition to the Ekman spiral.

• Oceanographer
• Meteorologist
• Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• University teachers ( Lund University )
• Swede
• Born in 1874
• Died in 1954
• Man