Theoretical physicist Frank Harlow delivered the inaugural Heritage Lecture Monday as part of the Lab's ongoing 60th anniversary events. Inset photo: Harlow was given this certificate of appreciation for his 50 years of "uninterrupted service" in T Division by Interim Laboratory Director Pete Nanos. Photos by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs
One life, one career, both filled with turbulence, is how a smiling Frank Harlow describes his half-century at Los Alamos.
Delivering the Lab's inaugural Heritage Lecture to a packed audience in the Administration Building Auditorium Monday, Harlow reflected on his work at Los Alamos over the last 50 years, defining both the complexity of "turbulence" and some of the worldwide focus he helped to bring on the question of how to calculate models of turbulence.
"The concept of turbulence is an incredibly difficult one to model, although calculations of its origins are needed to compute a variety of engineering and scientific problems; for example, how to make engines run more efficiently," Harlow said. "Models of turbulence are necessary to answer why some tornadoes are more destructive than others or to describe the result of impacts on Earth of different size meteorites."
On the other hand, evidence of turbulence is readily available in nature. It's visible anytime you stir two fluids together to mix them or watch the flickering flames of a campfire, he said.
Among the most dramatic evidence of turbulence on a huge scale, he said, is rare film footage of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington during the 1980s. Harlow showed the audience attending the lecture close up moving pictures of roiling, diversely shaped plumes from the mountain's blast, giving scientists a historic view of massive turbulence unfolding.
Harlow arrived at Los Alamos in 1953, a 25-year-old with a newly awarded Ph.D. in quantum field theory. He joined the Theoretical (T) Division, which, he noted, is one of the few divisions consistently in operation at the Lab since the beginning in 1943. Harlow now works in Computational Fluid Dynamics (T-3).
A renowned theoretical physicist, Harlow is credited with giving birth to the science of computer fluid dynamics. His uninterrupted career in the field led him to probe the properties of turbulent materials and to develop computer problem-solving techniques used worldwide.
He has served as a mentor for more than 150 students and has advised 16 doctoral candidates.
Additional 60th anniversary activities are scheduled periodically through the year. Schedules and general information about 60th anniversary activities are available at http://sixty.lanl.gov online. New events will be added to the event schedule frequently.
-- Bill Dupuy