Professor Ivan MarusicThe fourth and final installment of the 2011-12 Disquisitiones Mechanicae lecture series was held March 15 and 16, featuring guest presenter Professor Ivan Marusic from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Marusic is widely known for his experimental and theoretical work on turbulence at high Reynolds numbers, including studies in atmospheric surface layer flows.
Written by By William Bowman
Professor Ivan Marusic
The fourth and final installment of the 2011-12 Disquisitiones Mechanicae lecture series was held March 15 and 16, featuring guest presenter Professor Ivan Marusic from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Marusic is widely known for his experimental and theoretical work on turbulence at high Reynolds numbers, including studies in atmospheric surface layer flows.
“The Disquisitiones Mechanicae lectures gave me a wonderful opportunity to meet with colleagues and students at one of the leading universities in the field of Mechanics,” Marusic said. “The discussions and exchanges of ideas were most enjoyable.
In his perspective lecture on March 15, Marusic presented “Turbulence Research: Ongoing Challenges and New Opportunities.” This lecture explored the basic mechanics of turbulent flows, including the generation, evolution, and interactions of large-scale structures and the range of eddying motions present in wall turbulence. He highlighted the fact that the study of turbulence dates back centuries, even to the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci, yet there is much we still do not understand in this challenging scientific problem of both economic and societal importance.
“I was here at the University of Illinois 12 years ago, and things have changed quite a bit since then,” Marusic said at the beginning of his perspective lecture. “I’m really encouraged to see the level of activity and enthusiasm.
In his fluid mechanics seminar on March 16, Marusic presented “Interactions in Wall-Bounded Turbulence.” He explained how recent high Reynolds number experiments have brought into question the fundamental scaling laws of the turbulence and mean flow quantities and have revealed high Reynolds number phenomena that make extrapolation of low Reynolds number results highly questionable.
Outside of his lectures, Marusic used his time at Illinois meeting with a diverse crowd of engineering and physical sciences faculty and students, learning about the broad range of mechanics research being conducted at Illinois.
Marusic’s visit marked the completion of the 2011-12 Disquisitiones Mechanicae lecture series, which also featured visits from Professor Raymond Goldstein from the University of Cambridge in November, Professor George (Bud) Homsy from the University of British Columbia in December, and Professor Howard Stone from Princeton University in February. The lecture series focused on “fluid mechanics in complex environments” and drew great interest from numerous departments both within and outside the College of Engineering.