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John "Shôn" Eirwyn Ffowcs Williams FRSA FRAeS FInstP FREng (25 May 1935 – 12 December 2020) was Emeritus Rank Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a former Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1996–2002). He may be best known for his contributions to aeroacoustics, in particular for his work on Concorde. Together with one of his students, David Hawkings, he introduced the far-field integration method in computational aeroacoustics based on Lighthill's acoustic analogy, known as the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy.

Ffowcs was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 1995 for contributions to the theory of jet noise, and other aspects of aeroacoustics and hydrodynamics.

Education and early life

Born in Wales on 25 May 1935, Ffowcs Williams was educated at the Great Ayton Friends' School and Derby Technical College. He served an engineering apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce before going to the University of Southampton, he always maintained a strong commitment to bring academic research to bear on industrial problems. He was awarded Bachelor of Science degree and a PhD from the University of Southampton in 1961 for research supervised by Elfyn Richards.

Career and research

He cofounded Topexpress Ltd, a consultancy company in Cambridge specialising in engineering science, was executive consultant to Rolls-Royce and a director of VSEL plc. For 25 years he led the division in which the University of Cambridge's Fluid Mechanics, Aeronautics, Thermodynamics, and Turbomachinery work is concentrated.

He was admitted to his Professorial Fellowship at Emmanuel in 1973; he was the longest-serving professor in the University when he retired from his chair in 2002. He taught engineering for the College but, before becoming Master his main college contribution was serving on the Governing Body and its committees. He was the first holder of the Rank Chair of engineering established in 1972 in the field of acoustics, coming to Cambridge from Imperial College London, where he held the Rolls-Royce Chair in theoretical acoustics. His speciality was noise and vibration caused by unsteady flow. His main achievement was to persuade very good research students to tackle important but interesting problems which ranged from the aeroacoustics of supersonic flight, to the quietening of underwater platforms. His work helped make anti-sound useful for noise control and for stabilising unstable aeromechanical systems.

His doctoral students include David Crighton, Steve Furber, and Ann Dowling.

Awards and honours

Ffowcs Williams was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of Southampton and Master of Arts and Doctor of Science (ScD) degrees from the University of Cambridge.

• He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 1988
• In 1984 he was awarded the Rayleigh Medal by the UK Institute of Acoustics.
• In 1989 he was awarded the Médaille Étrangère by the French Acoustic Society (SFA).
• In 1995 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering
• For his contributions to the foundations and applications of Aeroacoustics, which have enabled dramatic reductions in the noise of aircraft and submarines he was awarded the Sir Frank Whittle Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002.
• He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS)
• He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
• He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FinstP)

Personal life

Williams married Anne Mason in 1959. He died on 12 December 2020.

Notes

1. English pronunciation: /ˈʃɔːn ˈaɪərwɪn ˈfaʊks/ SHAWN IRE-win FOWKS; Welsh pronunciation: [ʃoːn ˈɛirʊɨn ˈfɔʊks].

References

1. ^ Anon (2017) "Ffowcs Williams, Prof. John Eirwyn". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.15677 (subscription required)
2. ^ John Ffowcs Williams at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
3. ^ Crighton, David George (1969). Wave motion and vibration induced by turbulent flow. spiral.imperial.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of London. hdl:10044/1/15756. OCLC 930650746. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.623253.
4. Williams, J. E. F. (1961). "Noise from Convected Turbulence". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 33 (11): 1675. Bibcode:1961ASAJ...33Q1675W. doi:10.1121/1.1936718.
5. ^ Furber, Stephen Byram (1979). Is the Weis-Fogh principle exploitable in turbomachines?. lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.11472. OCLC 500446535. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.456071.
6. ^ Furber, S. B.; Williams, J. E. F. (1979). "Is the Weis-Fogh principle exploitable in turbomachinery?". Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 94 (3): 519. Bibcode:1979JFM....94..519F. doi:10.1017/S0022112079001166. S2CID 222345512.
7. ^ "List of Fellows". raeng.org.uk. Archived from the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
8. Huang, Lixi; James Quinn, S.; Ellis, Peter D.M.; Ffowcs Williams, John E. (1995). "Biomechanics of snoring". Endeavour. 19 (3): 96–100. doi:10.1016/0160-9327(95)97493-R. ISSN 0160-9327. PMID 7493592.
9. "Emmanuel College Fellows". Archived from the original on 13 December 2012.
10. Hawkings, David Leonard (1968). Some forced wave problems in fluid mechanics. spiral.imperial.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of London. hdl:10044/1/15859. OCLC 894599420. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.623038.
11. Williams, J. E. F.; Hawkings, D. L. (1969). "Sound Generation by Turbulence and Surfaces in Arbitrary Motion". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 264 (1151). Royal Society: 321–342. Bibcode:1969RSPTA.264..321W. doi:10.1098/rsta.1969.0031. ISSN 1364-503X. S2CID 19155680.
12. "Prix et médailles de la SFA, Médaille Étrangère".
13. "Through the sound barrier without a boom?". The Royal Academy of Engineering. 17 May 2002. Archived from the original on 14 December 2011.
14. "Tribute page for Shôn FFOWCS WILLIAMS". funeral-notices.co.uk. Retrieved 10 February 2021.

• 1935 births
• 2020 deaths
• Academics of Imperial College London
• Masters of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
• Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering
• Fellows of the Institute of Physics
• Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society
• British fluid dynamicists
• Professors of engineering (Cambridge)
• Alumni of the University of Southampton
• 20th-century Welsh engineers
• 21st-century Welsh engineers