Earl H. Dowell, AE Alumnus Wins AIAA Crichlow Trust Prize 2007

4/10/2013 Written by Susan Mumm

Dr. Earl H. Dowell (BS 1959) was selected to receive the AIAA 2007 Crichlow Trust Prize. This prize was established in 1994 and presented for excellence in aerospace materials, structural design, structural analysis, or structural dynamics. Dowell’s award citation states: “For pioneering contributions to aeroelasticity, structural dynamics and unsteady aerodynamics which had an enormous influence on aerospace technology and for contributions to ed

Written by Written by Susan Mumm

Dr. Earl H. Dowell (BS 1959) was selected to receive the AIAA 2007 Crichlow Trust Prize. This prize was established in 1994 and presented for excellence in aerospace materials, structural design, structural analysis, or structural dynamics. Dowell’s award citation states: “For pioneering contributions to aeroelasticity, structural dynamics and unsteady aerodynamics which had an enormous influence on aerospace technology and for contributions to education and public service in aerospace engineering.

Dowell is the William Holland Hall Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Dean Emeritus at Duke University. His principal teaching interest and research activity is in the field of aeroelasticity. Dr. Dowell has also done research in acoustics, nonlinear dynamics, structural dynamics, and unsteady aerodynamics.

His major research accomplishments include the first definitive research monograph on the aeroelasticity of plates and shells, the first derivation and solution of the nonlinear equations of motion for a helicopter rotor blade (the Hodges-Dowell equations), and work with Professor Kenneth Hall and several graduate students and post-doctoral fellows on reducing the dimensions of mathematical models for very complex high-dimensional fluid/structural systems.


Share this story

This story was published April 10, 2013.