Professor Gerard M. Faeth unexpectedly passed away in his home on Monday, January 24, 2005.
Gerard Faeth was known internationally for his numerous, diverse and lasting research and educational contributions to engineering and the sciences. His research involved multiple disciplines-physics, chemistry, and aerospace and mechanical engineering - and advanced the work of other researchers and practicing engineers.
Gerard Faeth was the Arthur F. Modine Distinguished University Professor, a Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Gas Dynamics Laboratories at The University of Michigan. Since 1959, he had enjoyed a stellar career in teaching and research on combustion, transport, and fluid dynamics at two of the nations' premier universities, Penn State and U-M. He was a highly devoted teacher and an excellent research mentor who graduated more than 50 PhD students and 30 post-doctoral research fellows. Greatly influenced by his outstanding mentorship, many of his students have emulated his foot-steps and have pursued their own academic careers.
Professor Faeth's seminal research contributions to the fundamentals of combustion and heat transfer are of exceptionally high quality. He is widely recognized as the leading and most cited researcher in the area of spray breakup and soot formation fundamentals. He has also made broader impact through the application of his fundamental findings to practical industrial problems, such as those found in gas turbine combustors, internal combustion engines and paint sprays. He was the author or co-author of more than five hundred journal articles and papers, which have shaped the field.
Professor Faeth dedicated a great deal of his energy to render extensive and truly outstanding service to academia and his professional community, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the three most prestigious journals: the AIAA Journal, Combustion and Flame, and the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer. Professor Faeth received numerous honors throughout his career, culminating with his election as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1991. In 1993 he received the College's Stephen S. Attwood Award, the highest honor the College can bestow on a faculty member. He was scheduled to give his lecture as the Arthur B. Modine Distinguished University Professor of Aerospace Engineering. The Distinguished University Professorship is one of the highest honors a Michigan faculty member can receive.
The ME Department will gravely miss Professor Jerry Faeth as a colleague, teacher, mentor and friend. Our heartfelt condolences and prayers to his family during these extremely difficult moments.