6/18/2012 By William Bowman 2 min read
Written by By William Bowman
Hassan Aref, 60, died September 9, 2011, at his home in Deland, Ill., of an aortic dissection.
Aref graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1975 and from Cornell University with a Ph.D. in physics in 1980. He taught at Brown University (1980–1985) and the University of California San Diego (1985–1993) before becoming head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at UIUC (1992–2003). He then served as dean of engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (2003–2005). At the time of his death, he had just returned fulltime to the Engineering Science and Mechanics faculty at VPI after a Niels Bohr Visiting Professorship at the Technical University of Denmark (2006–2010).
Aref was particularly well known for developing the concept of chaotic advection in fluid mechanics. He was awarded the Otto Laporte Award from the American Physical Society (2000), a doctorate technices honoris causa from the Technical University of Denmark (2011), and the G. I. Taylor Medal of the Society of Engineering Science (2011). He was also a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Mechanics, and the World Innovation Foundation.
He held many leadership positions in the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and organized many conferences, including the 20th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (Chicago, 2000), for which he served as president. There, he staged an impromptu interruption of his own opening remarks to have Newton, Galileo, and Archimedes enact an Aref-authored play welcoming scientists from around the world.
Other notable achievements include his administrative leadership in establishing System X, the first academic computer to exceed 10 teraflops, and 2003’s third fastest computer in the world. Hassan married Susanne Eriksen, Ph.D., in 1974. She survives. He is also survived by sons Michael (Lan) and Thomas; and numerous students, friends and colleagues.
A celebration of life was held at Crossroads Church, Monticello, in September 2011. Donations may be made to a memorial fund established by the family. Details are available at hassan.mikearef.com.