Inf. J. Heat Mars Transfer.
Vol. 41, Nos 4-5, pp. 663-664, 1998
0 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
o!l17-9310198 $19.00+0.00

PergamonProfessor

Donald K. Edwards
65th birthday

It is with great pleasure that we celebrate in Octoberthe 65th birthday of Professor Donald K. Edwards,
whose contributions
to the field of heat and masstransfer have made an impact, in a very significant
way, on our knowledge of radiative and convective
heat transfer, including surface and gas radiation
properties,
radiation in combustionsystems, spacecraft heat transfer, s;olar energy utilization and solar
collection design, phase-change
processes, and heatpipe technology.
Professor Edwards was born on 11 October 1932 in
Richmond, Califorma. Early in his life he was exposedto the practical aspects of engineering through hisfather, who was a mechanical engineer with Standard
Oil, and his uncle Eldred Edwards, who was a noted
inventor and designer. This backgroundfacilitated
his being able to achieve a unique balance between
engineeringscience and technology
throughout
hiscareer. Growing up on San Francisco Bay led to akeen interest in sailing, an activity that he enjoys tothe present day. In later years, visitors to Don and hislate wife, Nathalie, at their cabin on Big Bear Lakewould not be able to escape the mandatory sail on thelake. He was also an avid reader and bridge player inon his

his early years (the latter activity apparently competed
for his attention while he was an engineering student,with near disastrous consequences).
Not far from home, he attended UC Berkeley,
where he received his B.S. degree in Engineering withhighest honors in 1954. He remained at Berkeley forhis graduate education and received the M.S. andPh.D. degrees in 1956 and 1959, respectively.
HisPh.D. dissertation,“Experimentaldetermination
ofthe band absorptivities
of carbon dioxide gas at elevated pressures and temperatures”,
provided an early
glimpse of what would be an outstanding
record ofcontributions
to fundamental and applied knowledgeof heat and mass transfer, for almost four decades.
After completing his Ph.D., he spent a year working
as a Thermodynamics
Engineer at Lockheed Aircraftat Palo Alto, California. This experience marked thebeginning of nearly 40 years of active involvementwith the California aerospace industry.
In September 1959, he joined UCLA as an AssistantProfessor in the College of Engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1963 and to Professor
in 1968. He remained at UCLA until 1982, where healso served as Chairman of the Chemical, Nuclear and663

664

H. BUCHBERG

Thermal Engineering Department from 1975 to 1978.
In two decades at UCLA, he supervised 14 Ph.D.
dissertations
and 42 M.S. theses. In 1973, he received
the ASME Heat Transfer Division Memorial Awardfor his contributionsto the science of heat transfer insurface and gaseous radiation. In 1976, he received
the first AIAA Thermophysics
award for his contributions to radiant heat transfer analysis and radiation property instrumentation.
He was elected Fellow of the ASME in 1981.
In 1982, Professor
Edwards moved a few miles
south, to the School of Engineering at the Universityof California, Irvine. He joined the DepartmentofMechanical Engineering where he served as Chairman
for 2 years from 1984 to 1986, and as Associate Deanof Engineeringfor Graduate
Affairs from 1986 to1989. In 1988 Professor Edwards was elected Fellowof the American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics. At Irvine, he supervised six additional Ph.D.
dissertations and seven M.S. theses.
In the course of his career, Professor Edwards published over 120 technical papers on his research findings. He also authored several book chapters, andauthored or co-authored
three outstanding texts. His
Radiation
Heat Transfer notes were published byHemisphere in 198 1, while the text Transfer Processes,
an Introduction to Diffusion, Convection, and Radiation, co-authoredwith Professors V. K. Denny andA. F. Mills, was published in 1976. Professor Edwards
also wrote a monograph,“Solar collector design”,originally published in 1977, and later translated into
French in 1979.

et al.

Throughout
hisacademiccareer,
Professor
Edwards has been in great demand as a consultant by
the California aerospace industry, as he has surely
been regarded as the thermophysics
expert in thisindustry. His early work on spacecraft radiation heattransfer is, of course, well known, but over the years
he has been involved in a great variety of aerospaceheat and mass transfer problems. He pioneered gascontrolled heatpipe technology with Dr Bruce Marcusof TRW Systems in the late 196Os, and more recently
has been heavily involved in the design of the reusable
Delta rocket for McDonnell-Douglas.
It is unfortunatethat an anthology ofhisconsultant
reports is not available
to help educate a new generation of aerospace engineers.
Professor Edwards retired from the University ofCalifornia in 199 1,40 years after first entering it as anundergraduate
student. He continues to be an important source of informationand inspiration to his colleagues and students at UC1 where he occasionallyteaches
graduatecoursesin heat transfer.
His
colleagues, students and friends take pride in commemorating
his life-long achievements
and contributions on the occasion of his 65th birthday.
H. BUCHBERG
I. CATTON
S. E. ELGHOBASHI
J. P. HARTNETT
E. L. KNUTH
A. F. MILLS
W. J. MINKOWYCZ
R. H. RANGEL