Biography:John Ffowcs Williams

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Short description: British engineer-scientist
John Ffowcs Williams

FRSA FRAeS FInstP FREng
Born
Shôn Eirwen Ffowcs Williams

(1935-05-25)25 May 1935
Wales
Died12 December 2020(2020-12-12) (aged 85)
North Wales, Wales
Spouse(s)
Anne Mason (m. 1959)
[1]
AwardsSir Frank Whittle Medal (2002)
Academic background
Education
Alma materUniversity of Southampton[1]
ThesisOn Noise from Convected Turbulence (1961)
Doctoral advisorElfyn Richards[2]
Academic work
DisciplineEngineering
Sub-discipline
Institutions
Doctoral students
Main interests
Notable ideasFfowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy
Emmanuel College, Cambridge

John "Shôn" Eirwyn Ffowcs Williams FRSA FRAeS FInstP FREng[1][7][8][lower-alpha 1] (1935–2020) was Emeritus Rank Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a former Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1996–2002).[9] He may be best known for his contributions to aeroacoustics, in particular for his work on Concorde. Together with one of his students, David Hawkings,[10] he introduced the far-field integration method in computational aeroacoustics based on Lighthill's acoustic analogy, known as the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy.[11]

Ffowcs was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 1995 for contributions to the theory of jet noise, and other aspects of aeroacoustics and hydrodynamics.

Education and early life

Born in Wales on 25 May 1935, Ffowcs Williams was educated at the Great Ayton Friends' School and Derby Technical College.[1] He served an engineering apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce before going to the University of Southampton, he always maintained a strong commitment to bring academic research to bear on industrial problems. He was awarded Bachelor of Science degree and a PhD from the University of Southampton in 1961 for research supervised by Elfyn Richards.[2]

Career and research

He cofounded Topexpress Ltd, a consultancy company in Cambridge specialising in engineering science, was executive consultant to Rolls-Royce and a director of VSEL plc. For 25 years he led the division in which the University of Cambridge's Fluid Mechanics, Aeronautics, Thermodynamics, and Turbomachinery work is concentrated. [citation needed]

He was admitted to his Professorial Fellowship at Emmanuel in 1973; he was the longest-serving professor in the University when he retired from his chair in 2002. He taught engineering for the College but, before becoming Master his main college contribution was serving on the Governing Body and its committees. He was the first holder of the Rank Chair of engineering established in 1972 in the field of acoustics, coming to Cambridge from Imperial College London,[1] where he held the Rolls-Royce Chair in theoretical acoustics. His speciality was noise and vibration caused by unsteady flow. His main achievement was to persuade very good research students to tackle important but interesting problems which ranged from the aeroacoustics of supersonic flight, to the quietening of underwater platforms. His work helped make anti-sound useful for noise control and for stabilising unstable aeromechanical systems. [citation needed]

His doctoral students include David Crighton,[2][3] Steve Furber,[2][5][6] and Ann Dowling.[citation needed]

Awards and honours

Ffowcs Williams was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of Southampton[citation needed][when?] and Master of Arts and Doctor of Science (ScD)[citation needed] degrees from the University of Cambridge.[when?]

  • He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 1988[7]
  • In 1984 he was awarded the Rayleigh Medal by the UK Institute of Acoustics.[citation needed]
  • In 1989 he was awarded the Médaille Étrangère by the French Acoustic Society (SFA).[12]
  • In 1995 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering
  • For his contributions to the foundations and applications of Aeroacoustics, which have enabled dramatic reductions in the noise of aircraft and submarines he was awarded the Sir Frank Whittle Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002.[13]
  • He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS)[1]
  • He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)[1]
  • He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FinstP)[1]

Personal life

Williams married Anne Mason in 1959.[1] He died on 12 December 2020.[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ English pronunciation: /ˈʃɔːn ˈaɪərwɪn ˈfaʊks/ SHAWN IRE-win FOWKS; Welsh pronunciation: [ʃoːn ˈɛirʊɨn ˈfɔʊks].

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Anon (2017) ",". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U15677.  (subscription or UK public library membership required) doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.15677 (Subscription content?)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 John Ffowcs Williams at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Crighton, David George (1969). Wave motion and vibration induced by turbulent flow. spiral.imperial.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of London. hdl:10044/1/15756. OCLC 930650746. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.623253. Free to read
  4. ↑ Williams, J. E. F. (1961). "Noise from Convected Turbulence". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 33 (11): 1675. doi:10.1121/1.1936718. Bibcode: 1961ASAJ...33Q1675W. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Furber, Stephen Byram (1979). Is the Weis-Fogh principle exploitable in turbomachines?. lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.11472. OCLC 500446535. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.456071.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Furber, S. B.; Williams, J. E. F. (1979). "Is the Weis-Fogh principle exploitable in turbomachinery?". Journal of Fluid Mechanics 94 (3): 519. doi:10.1017/S0022112079001166. Bibcode: 1979JFM....94..519F. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "List of Fellows". http://www.raeng.org.uk/about-us/people-council-committees/the-fellowship/list-of-fellows. 
  8. ↑ Huang, Lixi; James Quinn, S.; Ellis, Peter D.M.; Ffowcs Williams, John E. (1995). "Biomechanics of snoring". Endeavour 19 (3): 96–100. doi:10.1016/0160-9327(95)97493-R. ISSN 0160-9327. PMID 7493592. 
  9. ↑ "Emmanuel College Fellows". http://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/teaching/fellows/display/index.cfm?fellow=43. 
  10. ↑ Hawkings, David Leonard (1968). Some forced wave problems in fluid mechanics. spiral.imperial.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of London. hdl:10044/1/15859. OCLC 894599420. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.623038. Free to read
  11. ↑ Williams, J. E. F.; Hawkings, D. L. (1969). "Sound Generation by Turbulence and Surfaces in Arbitrary Motion". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (Royal Society) 264 (1151): 321–342. doi:10.1098/rsta.1969.0031. ISSN 1364-503X. Bibcode: 1969RSPTA.264..321W. 
  12. ↑ "Prix et médailles de la SFA, Médaille Étrangère". http://www.sfa.asso.fr/archives/hitorique_pm/med_etrangere.htm. 
  13. ↑ "Through the sound barrier without a boom?". The Royal Academy of Engineering. 17 May 2002. http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=129. 
  14. ↑ "Tribute page for Shôn FFOWCS WILLIAMS". https://funeral-notices.co.uk/notice/ffowcs+williams/4902420. 
Academic offices
Preceded by
Norman St John-Stevas 		Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
1996–2002 		Succeeded by
Lord Wilson of Dinton
Awards
Preceded by
Tim Berners-Lee 		Sir Frank Whittle Medal
2002 		Succeeded by
Roland Clift



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