Andreas Acrivos

Andreas Acrivos was the Albert Einstein Professor Emeritus of Science and Engineering and former Director of the Benjamin Levich Institute for Physicochemical Hydrodynamics at the City College of the City University of New York. He was also Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. Acrivos was an influential figure in the field of fluid dynamics and suspension rheology, a discipline of relevance to problems in physiology as well as in energy production and transport. Although trained as a chemical engineer, he pursued research in such a way that the results were of interest to a broad community of engineers, physicists, and applied mathematicians. His influence was profound, not only through his research but also in his style and mentoring of his students. As editor of The Physics of Fluids (1982-97), he set high standards in the field and transformed it into one of the two top journals in fluid mechanics on an international scale. Acrivos received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Syracuse University, Illinois Institute of Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota, the University of Patras in Greece, City College of New York, and Clarkson University. He was a member of the NAE and of the NAS and received one of the 2001 US National Medals of Science.