Abstract
DR. ALEXANDER THOM, who has been appointed to the chair of engineering science in the University of Oxford, graduated in engineering in the University of Glasgow in 1915, and after a varied experience in civil engineering construction both abroad and in Great Britain was engaged in aircraft design in the later years of the War of 1914–18. In 1921 he was appointed lecturer in engineering in the University of Glasgow, and from that time until the beginning of the present War, Dr. Thorn was in charge of the subject of aeronautics and also of the specialist courses in civil engineering. This somewhat unusual combination was of considerable value to the teaching in both subjects, and large numbers of engineering students in all branches have benefited in their scientific training from the lectures in aeronautics given by Dr. Thom. His tenure of the post was marked by a large volume of research work in aerodynamics, comprising exhaustive studies of the flow of a fluid past a cylinder, stationary and rotating, employing both a small wind tunnel and, for an experimental investigation of the pattern round a cylinder at low Reynolds numbers, a small channel using water and oil. In the course of his studies he developed an arithmetical method of solution of the equations of flow for both ideal and viscous fluids. The results of his researches, which have throughout been characteristic of the originality of his mind, have been embodied in numerous papers contributed to Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Research Committee, the Royal Society and the scientific and technical Press. Shortly before the outbreak of the present War, he was given leave of absence from his university duties to engage in work at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, and has latterly been in charge of new developments in the Aerodynamics Department.
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Engineering Science at Oxford: Dr. Alexander Thom. Nature 154, 111 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154111a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154111a0