International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 52 (2009) 2425–2426

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Obituary

Professor Emeritus M. Necati Özisik 1923–2008

Professor Emeritus M. Necati Özisik was born on June 17, 1923
in Istanbul. After going through basic education in Turkey, hemoved to England where he obtained his B.S. and Ph.D. from theUniversity of London, in 1947 and 1950, respectively. Before
becoming a faculty member at North Carolina State University(NCSU) in 1963, Prof. Özisik was the Head of the Technical Department of the Turkish State Enterprises in Ankara (1955–1957), and aSenior Research Scientist in the ASHRAE (American Society ofHeating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning) Laboratory (1957–1959) and in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1959–1963). He
retired as Professor Emeritus of NCSU’s Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering Department in 1998, where he spent most of his academic career. He was also a Visiting Professor for several occasions
in INSA-Lyon, University of Nantes and ETH-Zurich.
Professor Özisik dedicated his life to education and research inheat transfer. His outstanding contributions made him recipient ofseveral awards since 1952, including the Heat Transfer Memorial
Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1987
and the Outstanding Engineering Educator Award of the American
Society of Engineering Education in 1992. He is a recipient of theScience Award from the Turkish Scientiﬁc and Technical ResearchCouncil. This is the highest scientiﬁc award given by the Turkish
government and was presented to Prof. Özisik by the President ofTurkey in a special ceremony. Prof. Özisik was the main advisorof more than 50 doctoral students, most of them now holding
prominent academic positions around the world. He publishedmore than three hundred research papers in international journals
and conferences. He was the author of eleven books, most of thembest-sellers that were re-edited several times and published in
doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2008.12.022

different languages. His personal characteristics were apparent inall these books, where the material was rigorously presented in aclear, organized and systematic manner. As a result, his books became standards in graduate and undergraduate courses in many
countries. His main contributions included analytical, numericaland hybrid solution techniques for direct and inverse problems,for coupled and uncoupled heat transfer modes.
Professor Özisik was a ﬁne gentleman, who loved the arts throughthe music and painting. He was also dedicated to sports and could befound running daily in NCSU’s gymnasium almost until his retirement.
Professor Özisik passed away peacefully on October 04, 2008,
while sleeping in his home in Turkey. His legacy is left for us andfor those yet to come to the rich ﬁeld of Heat Transfer.
Helcio R.B. Orlande *Renato M. Cotta
W.J. Minkowycz
Mikhail D. Mikhailov
Sadik KakaçYaman Yener
Yildiz Bayazitoglu
Woo S. Kim
T. Nejat Veziroglu
E.M. Sparrow
Jean François Sacadura*Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 21 2562 8405; fax: +55 21 2562
8383.

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Obituary / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 52 (2009) 2425–2426

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Politécnica/COPPE,
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Cid. Universitaria,
Cx. Postal: 68503, Rio de Janeiro,
RJ 21941-972, Brazil
E-mail address: helcio@mecanica.ufrj.br (H.R.B. Orlande)