Princeton’s Stone discusses fluid mechanics at February’s Disquisitiones Mechanicae

Professor Moshe Matalon and guest lecturer Professor Howard Stone

The third installment of the 2011-12 Disquisitiones Mechanicae lecture series was held February 9 and 10, featuring guest presenter Professor Howard Stone from Princeton University. Professor Stone’s research interests are in fluid dynamics, especially as they arise in research and applications at the interface of engineering, chemistry and physics.

“Mechanics has many sides,” Stone said. “The marvelous thing about mechanics is it’s the basis of the majority of our undergraduate training in science and engineering.”

In his perspective lecture on February 9, Stone presented “Fluid Dynamics and Biofilms.” This lecture considered bacterial biofilms, which have an enormous impact on medicine, industry, and ecology. The presentation centered on his research group’s investigation of two surprising findings: the migration of surface-attached bacteria upstream in a flow and the formation of biofilm streamers, which refer to suspended filamentous biofilms.

In his fluid mechanics seminar on February 10, Stone presented “Elastocapillary Dynamics.” This presentation focused on the effects of surface tension on fluid dynamics, and how in some applications the boundaries of the flow are soft enough that their deformation is coupled to the flow.

Outside of his lectures, Stone used his time at Illinois meeting with a diverse crowd of engineering faculty and learning about the broad range of mechanics research being conducted at Illinois.

Disquisitiones Mechanicae concludes in March with guest speaker Professor Ivan Marusic, a renowned professor from the University of Melbourne. On March 15, Marusic will present a perspective lecture, “Turbulence Research: Ongoing Challenges and New Opportunities,” followed on March 16 with a fluid mechanics seminar titled “Interactions in Wall-Bounded Turbulence.”

Faculty and students from all areas of campus are invited to attend. For more details, please visit the Disquisitiones Mechanicae web page.