fnt. J. ffeo~ Mass Tlrm?frr. Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 905-906. 1988
Pergamon Press
Printed in Great Britainplc.

Professor Ephraim M. Sparrowon his 60th birthday

PROFESSOR
Ephraim M. Sparrow celebrates his 60thbirthday this month, and it is a great pleasure on thisoccasion to honor his record of achievement.
Professor Sparrow was born on 27 May 1928 in
Hartford, Connecticut.
He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received
the B.S. degree in 1948 and the M.S. in 1949. He thenentered Harvard University, where he received theM.A. in 1950 and, under the guidance of Professor
Howard W. Emmons, the Ph.D. in 1952. After sixyears at the NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, Professor Sparrow joined the Universityof Minnesota as a professor of mechanical engineeringin 1959.
Professor Sparrow has been the most productive
heat transfer researcher in the world for more than
three decades, and the fruits of his research have been
conveyed to the engineering community in a bodyof literature encompassing a book on radiation heattransfer and close to 600 papers. The impact of thesepapers has been far-reaching, as witnessed by the factthat he has been consistently the most cited mechanical engineering professor in the Science Citation
Index. His work is characterized by impeccablequality, and his papers have helped to set the standardof quality for an entire field. These research achievements have been recognized by the most prestigious
HMT 31:5-A

heat transfer awards--the Max Jakob Award and theASME Heat Transfer Division Memorial Award.
Another hallmark of Professor Sparrow’s work has
been its exceptional breadth, and over the years hehas worked actively in every facet of heat transfer,and always at or near the frontiers of knowledge. A
highly abbreviated list of his research areas includes
duct flows, boundary layers, natural convection, heatexchangers, laminar and turbulent flows, radiative
heat transfer, mass transfer, phase change (evaporation, condensation, freezing, melting, and boiling),
heat conduction, rotating surfaces and fluids, solar
energy, chemically reacting flows, hydrodynamic andthermal instability, jet impingement, flow in porous
media, and cooling of electronic equipment. In eachof these areas and others, he has produced papers thathave become standard reference.
Among researchers, Professor Sparrow is unusualin that he is highly effective both in experiment andin analysis/computation.
He was among the first torecognize the enormous potential of the digital computer as a tool for solving highly complex problems
in heat transfer and fluid flow. Although he has continned to steadily produce analytically- and computationally-based research, he is perhaps best known
as an innovative, painstaking experimentalist.
Professor Sparrow has performed su~rlatively as905

906

Professor Ephraim M. Sparrowa professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota. Thus far, approximately 70Ph.D. theses and 100 Master’s theses have been completed under his direction. His students have gone on
to positions of importance both in the academic andindustrial worlds. As a classroom teacher, Professor
Sparrow has no peer. A characteristic of his interactions with students has been his devoted care andconcern for them and their futures. He has been
awarded the Ralph Coates Roe Teaching Award bythe American Society for Engineering Education, andtwo Teaching Awards from the Institute of Technology of the University of Minnesota.
Professor Sparrow has also contributed
significantly to the effective transmission of technicalinfo~ation.
He was editor of the ASME Journal ofHeat Transfer for eight years. During that time, it
became one of the most prestigious publication
vehicles in the field, with quality standards second tonone, and he received the Distinguished Service
Award from the Heat Transfer Division of ASME in
recognition of his efforts. He was also a co-founderof the journal, ~urner~ca~ Heat TrGtisfer, and now
serves as chairman of its editorial board. He is amember of the editorial boards of the International
Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer and of International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

and, in addition, he is co-editor of a series of books
on computational methods in mechanics and thermalsciences.
He has also lent his energies to international activities. He was chief-of-party of a team which establishedthe first graduate programs in engineering in Brazil,
and this work was recognized by his being awarded
an honorary doctorate by the University of Brazil.
He is an advisory professor at the Xi’an Jiaotong

University in Xi’an, China. In addition, he has lectured in many countries throughout the world.
Recently, Professor Sparrow assumed the positionof Division Director, Chemical, Biochemical, andThermal Engineering, at the U.S. National Science
Foundation in Washington, DC. From this nationalposition, he is contributing to the growth and strengthof engineering research and education in the UnitedStates, while commuting weekends to the Universityof Minnesota where he continues to serve as a professor of mechanical engineering.
In each one of the various activities and endeavors
with which he has been involved, Professor Sparrow
has been an extraordinary performer. His impact onthe field of heat transfer and on the engineering community in general is without parallel. In recognitionof his contributions to mechanical engineering, Professor Sparrow has received many of the highest
citations from ASME, including the Worcester Reed
Warner Medal, the Charles Russ Richards Memorial
Award, and the ASME Centennial Medal. In view of
his contributions to engineering on a national level,
he was recently elected to the U.S. National Academyof Engineering.
On this occasion, his students, colleagues andfriends throughout the world join with the editors of
this journal to wish Professor Eph Sparrow manyyears of continued professional success, good healthand family happiness.
W. J. MINKOWYCZ
K. E. TORRANCE
J. R. LLOYD
J. P. HARTNETT
T. S. CHEN
A. HAJI-SHEIKH