Fazle Hussain, the Cullen Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UH, recently was selected by AIAA to receive the Fluid Dynamics Award for his contributions to the understanding of turbulence. He will receive the award June 25 in St. Louis.
Hussain previously has won all of the other three awards recognized as the most prestigious professional awards in the field of fluid dynamics. Only two other scholars worldwide have received two of the four awards, which are given for outstanding career achievements or original contributions to the field of fluid dynamics. In addition to the AIAA award, Hussain has earned the Freeman Scholar Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1984), the Fluid Dynamics Prize from the American Physical Society (1998) and the Fluids Engineering Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2000). Hussain, who directs UH’s Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Turbulence, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001and to the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1997.
Hussain was one of the first to recognize that the organized motion underlying the seemingly random motion of turbulence is the key to understanding turbulence and to controlling turbulent flows for technological benefit. His current research projects include designs for more efficient engines and turbines, aircraft designs that reduce drag and save fuel, and reducing the noise from jet engines. Hussain also is working on a bladeless helicopter, powered by a “manufactured tornado” and capable of vertical ascent and landing.
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