[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXIV, Issue 29

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXIV, Issue 29
May.26,2017

Editor: Peter Chi
Co-Editor: Guan Le
Distribution Support: Sharon Uy, Marjorie Sowmendran, Todd King, Kevin Addison
E-mail: editor at igpp.ucla.edu

Announcement Submission Website: http://goo.gl/forms/qjcm4dDr4g

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Table of Contents

1. Shi Tsan Wu (1933-2017)

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Shi Tsan Wu (1933-2017)

From: Chin-Chun Wu (chin-chun.wu at nrl.navy.mil)

With a heavy heart, we announce the passing of Dr. S. T. Wu, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He got ill suddenly and died in the afternoon of Sunday, May 21, 2017. His beloved wife Mai and his children were with him. The celebration of his life will be held on Tuesday, May 30, 2017.

* Visitation is from 2PM – 4PM immediately followed by the celebration service from 4PM – 5PM. 

* The visitation and service will be held at Berryhill Funeral Home located at 2305 Memorial Pkwy NW, Huntsville, AL 35810 

* A scholarship fund in the name of Prof. S.T. Wu is in process at UAH. In lieu of flowers, please donate to this scholarship**. 

Many thanks to all who have reached out to us during this difficult period. It has been heartwarming and gratifying for his wife and children to see the positive impact his life on individuals and the broader scientific community here and internationally. 

A Facebook webpage was set up for people to share their memories of Prof. Wu:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1405833872806368/

As a child, he was attracted by automobiles, and he wanted to build cars in China so that everyone could afford. He chose mechanical engineering as his major at the National Taiwan University in Taiwan, Republic of China. His senior year project was the design of a small cheap car for everyone at that time when it was in the 1950’s. He came to the USA in 1957 for graduate study in mechanical engineering and received a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois. 

The physics of fluids and heat transfer became his favorite subjects and opened his eyes to fundamentals sciences. His research in solar physics began in 1964 when he was a Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado with a research assistantship at the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. Supervised by Dr. Yoshinari Nakagawa, his work at HAO was on a laboratory plasma experiment that simulated solar flares in the laboratory using a magnetohydrodynamic shock tube. 

He was assigned to develop a theoretical model to simulate solar flare shock tube experiment. Under the conditions of this shock tube, it produced a high temperature and multi-species plasma under non-thermodynamic-equilibrium (Non-LTE) conditions. At that time no appropriate theoretical model existed. He began to formulate this problem using multiple component Boltzmann Equation with quantum effects. Finally, they arrived at a set of multi-species Navier-Stokes type conservation equations for the non-equilibrium radiative plasma flow. This piece of research was his Ph.D. dissertation (Nakagawa and Wu, 1968: Wu 1969, 1970) and began his research in solar MHD plasma. 

After he completed his Ph.D. degree, he joined The University of Alabama in Huntsville near the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. He had the opportunity to work with scientists in the Solar Physics Group. He was one of the pioneers who started the development of numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models to simulate the initiation, evolution of solar disturbances (e.g., Coronal Mass Ejection) from the Sun to the Earth. 

While working at UAH, he supervised 24 Ph.D. and 25 Master students. He had received many international, national, and regional honors and awards. He also served as committee members in different science communities. He had published hundreds of science research articles. He was the founder and Director of the Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR) during 1995-2005. He was also a Distinguished Professor in Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UAH during 1990-2005. He retired in 2005 when he became a distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama System, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Center for Space Plasma & Aeronomic Research
(UAH).

**The family of
Dr. Shi Tsan Wu
respectfully requests that gifts in his memory
be made to the

Professor Shi Tsan
Wu Memorial Scholarship
at The University
of Alabama in Huntsville.

Checks should be made payable to UAH Foundation and mailed to:
University Development
Shelbie King Hall, Suite 300
Huntsville, AL 35899

Online gifts are accepted at http://www.uah.edu/giving .
Click on “GIVE NOW,” then “Pay by Credit Card.”

Please note the scholarship name on your check
Or in the “Other Designation” filed online.
For assistance, call 256-824-6685.
Thank you.

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