Interview with Prof. Forman A. Williams - author of “Combustion Theory”
We have yet another excellent interview this week! The author of the pioneering book the “Combustion Theory,” Professor Forman Williams, sat down with me to discuss the past, present and future of combustion.
But first, as always, some excitting MVP updates:
- Coming up on MVP blog in the beginning of October - an interview with Dr. Bill Pitz from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Pitz will answers questions on importance of chemical mechanisms and talks about some challenges facing the fuel chemistry industry.
- My web design team is in the middle of a MAJOR website overhaul! Thanks to all of you readers, my consulting and training practice is growing rapidly and has expanded well beyond “helping you choose the best software tools.” Stay tuned to find out what we have morphed into over the past year, and how we can help YOU!
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And now, Professor Forman A. Williams.
Bio
Professor Williams received his BSE from Princeton University in 1955 and his PhD from California Institute of Technology in 1958. He then taught at Harvard University until 1964, at which time he joined the UCSD faculty. In January 1981, Professor Williams accepted the Robert H. Goddard Chair in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at PrincetonUniversity, where he remained until 1988, when he returned to UCSD to assume his present position.
He is author of Combustion Theory (Addison, Wesley, 2nd ed., 1985) and co-author of Fundamental Aspects of Combustion (Oxford, 1993). He is a member of the editorial advisory boards of the AIAA Journal, Combustion and Flame, Combustion Science and Technology, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science and Archivium Combustionis.
Click on image below to LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW (you might need to install a quicktime plugin)
PLAY THE INTERVIEW
Good interview, I enjoyed listening.
My recollection of the dates is a little different. I was a Ph.D. student at Princeton from Sep 1975 to Jan 1980. I recall that Forman Williams was there at least during the last half of 1979. Maybe he was only made Goddard Professor later, but I recall he was on the faculty earlier.
Forman mentions Martin Summerfield (who taught some of my classes and was one of my PH.D. entrance interrogators), but there were many other combustion theorists at Princeton at that time. I remember, in particular, Wally Hayes. (Actually, Wally was a mathematician.) The experimentalists included Irv Glassman. Fred Bracco, Fred Dryer, … I could go on.
Keith Meintjes