Alexander Smits,
professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will receive two
major awards in 2007 for his work on turbulence and fluid mechanics.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers will honor Smits with the
2007 Fluids Engineering Award. The award is given annually to one
recipient “for outstanding contributions, over a period of years, to
the engineering profession and especially to the field of fluids
engineering through research, practice and/or teaching.”
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has chosen Smits
to receive the 2007 Pendray Aerospace Literature Award “for outstanding
and significant contributions to the aerospace literature, especially
in the area of high Reynolds turbulent flows and for his dedicated
service as an editor and associate editor of many fluid dynamics
journals.” He received the institute’s Fluid Dynamics Award in 2004.
A member of the Princeton faculty for 25 years, Smits has directed the University’s Gas Dynamics Laboratory
since 1989. He is a four-time recipient of the Engineering Council’s
Excellence in Teaching Award and chaired the Department of Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering from 1998 to 2004. He is a chief editor of www.efluids.com,
a Web portal for students and researchers in fluid dynamics, and an
associate editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and the Journal of
Turbulence.
Smits is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Royal Aeronautical
Society and the Institute of Physics.
