Freund Elected to APS Fluid Dynamics Executive Committee

Aerospace Engineering at Illinois Prof. Jonathan B. Freund has been elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Fluid Dynamics Division of the American Physical Society (APS).

The committee is the chief governing unit of the division, and consists of four officers and six members. The Division of Fluid Dynamics exists for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of the physics of fluids with special emphasis on the dynamical theories of the liquid, plastic and gaseous states of matter under all conditions of temperature and pressure.

Freund, who also has an appointment in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department and is a Kritzer Faculty Scholar, leads a group that investigates mechanical phenomena in a range of systems. Current and recent research activities include jet noise control, simulation and analysis of aeroacoustic resonances in jet engine test cells, tissue injury during shock-wave lithotripsy, the dynamics of atomically thin liquid films, the flow of large numbers of blood cells in the microcirculation, simulation of advanced solid rocket motors, thermal transport at crystal lattice boundaries, self-healing hydrodynamics in autonomic composites, and ion machining of semiconductor materials. Most of the group’s investigations utilize advanced computer simulations tools – many of which they have designed – coupled with detailed analysis.

Freund has been an APS Fellow since 2011. The APS Division of Fluid Dynamics has honored Freund with the 2000 Gallery of Fluid Motion Award and the 2008 Francois Frankiel Award. He became an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2012.

Freund has been an Engineering at Illinois faculty member since 2001. He earned three degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University: a bachelor’s in 1991, a master’s in 1992, and a PhD in 1998.