Dean Emeritus Katepalli Sreenivasan’s list of laurels grows longer
His latest include a fellowship in Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society; a research award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; and the the J.C. Bose Lectureship of the Indian National Science Academy.
Updated September 2024
It was not that long ago that the American Physical Society (APS) honored Katepalli Sreenivasan — NYU Tandon’s Dean Emeritus and Eugene Kleiner Professor for Innovation in Mechanical Engineering, CAS Professor of Physics, and Courant Professor of Mathematics — with its 2020 Fluid Dynamics Prize for his fundamental contributions to fluid dynamics, especially turbulence from quantum to astrophysical scales. Later, the organization, comprising 55,000 physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry, awarded him the 2022 Leo P. Kadanoff Prize, bestowed upon scientists whose theoretical, experimental, or computational achievements have opened new vistas for statistical and or nonlinear physics. That year he was also presented with the prestigious ASME Medal, the highest award bestowed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Since being inaugurated in 1920, the medal has gone to such luminaries as Albert Kingsbury, whose inventions contributed greatly to naval efforts during World Wars I and II, and Milton C. Shaw, who conducted seminal work on metals processing.
While Sreenivasan’s work is largely fundamental — he is most interested in the principles behind things, he has said — it has practical, real-world implications for improving aircraft design, gas turbine engines, energy distribution, weather prediction, and more. That was evident in his ASME citation for “exceptionally fundamental and applied contributions to experimental, theoretical and computational fluid dynamics, and for outstanding service as a leader in the engineering profession.”
ASME and APS are far from the only organizations recognizing the renowned physicist as the decade progresses: his many 2024 honors include a fellowship in Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society; a research award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; and the the J.C. Bose Lectureship of the Indian National Science Academy.
Sreenivasan has devoted much of his research to the study of turbulence and laminarization (in which a fluid flow returns to being smooth rather than remaining in its original state of turbulence). Turbulence is extremely useful, he has asserted, because without the mixing of various things like heat and cold, or oxygen and fuel in the case of combustion, life on Earth would not exist.
His studies have gone well beyond Earth, however; he also directs the NYU Abu Dhabi Space Science Center. He and his collaborators have made contributions to helioseismology, the study of the structure and dynamics of the Sun, and he was part of a team that first tracked the precise rotational patterns of Sun-like stars, an important step in ascertaining exactly how stars function, and gaining needed insight into their magnetic fields. More recently, he was part of a team that used simulations to describe the molecular kinetics in the atmosphere of Callisto, the second-largest moon of the planet Jupiter.
Those more recent prizes join a lengthy list of Sreenivasan’s honors that includes membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Accademia dei Lincei, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), and the African Academy of Science, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship, the UNESCO Medal for Promoting International Scientific Cooperation and World Peace from the World Heritage Centre, and others far too numerous to list. Additionally, he is a former director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, in Trieste, Italy, and one of the rare few individuals to hold the NYU distinction of being named a University Professor, a title conferred upon scholars whose work is interdisciplinary and reflects exceptional breadth.
You can read some of Sreenivasan’s noteworthy papers:
