International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow 55 (2015) A1–A2

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flowjournal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhff

Tribute to Professor Nobuhide Kasagi 笠木 伸英

It was with deep shock and profound regret that the editors andpublisher of the IJHFF learned of Professor Nobuhide Kasagi’s
death following a prolonged illness, on July 29th, 2015 at the early
age of 68.
It had been in 1993 that this journal concluded that the evergrowing numbers of manuscripts from eastern Asia merited theaddition of a further Editor-in-Chief and that the new editor should
ideally be chosen from that region too. By then Professor Kasagi’s
extensive published work on fundamental aspects of turbulent

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatfluidflow.2015.08.002

mixing and heat transport in wall shear flows had establishedhim, internationally, as a leading contributor to turbulent convection. Moreover his contributions spanned both experimental andcomputational research. These accomplishments, together withhis excellent command of English, made him the ideal choice as
the new editor; and it was the Journal’s very good fortune thathe accepted the invitation to serve. He became an Editor-in-Chiefat the start of 1994, a role he discharged with exemplary thoroughness for 19 years. Indeed, he made a significant change to theJournal’s appearance from the very start of his tenure for heprovided the photograph taken in his laboratory of a turbulent
boundary layer that thenceforth has been reproduced on the front
cover of every issue.
Kasagi’s university education had been in the MechanicalEngineering Department of the University of Tokyo where, oncompletion of his doctorate in 1976, he was immediately
appointed as a faculty member. Except for a career-shaping
sabbatical leave spent at Stanford University in 1980–81 heremained at the University of Tokyo throughout his academiccareer, becoming Professor of Thermal & Fluids Engineering in
1990 and subsequently serving two terms as Department
Chairman. While he later served as Vice Dean of Engineering andmember of the University Council, his main passions were inapplying his research insight and exceptional organizational skills
to the transfer of newly acquired research discoveries to the fluid
mechanics and heat transfer communities.
He was successively elected to the roles of president of theJapanese societies of Fluid Mechanics (1987) and Computational
Fluid Mechanics (2000). He chaired the JSME Thermal Energy
Division in 2002–03 before becoming Vice-President of the Heat
Transfer Society of Japan from 2003–05. His fine performance inthese roles led to his being chosen in 2005 as President Elect ofJSME and to his appointment as President of JSME the following
year. Finally, we note that in 2010 he became the Japanese
Government’s representative and vice-chair of the OECD’s Science& Technology Committee.

A2Obituary / International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow 55 (2015) A1–A2Yet, his contributions to the fluids and heat-transfer communities were not only, or even principally, focused at the nationallevel. A hallmark of Kasagi’s professional life was his deeply
ingrained spirit of international collaboration, first signalled byhis Stanford sabbatical and firmly re-emphasized, while Presidentof the JSME, in his keynote address in Brussels to the 2007
International Congress of Mechanical Engineering Societies:‘‘JSME’s challenge toward relationship building”.

In 1992 he had been invited to serve on the organizing and paperselection committees of the 9th Turbulent Shear Flow Symposiumthat was to be held in Kyoto the following year. That was the onlyoccasion that that conference series was held outside of Europeand North America. (Indeed his stellar contributions to thatmeeting provided further impetus to his being invited to become
an Editor-in-Chief of the IJHFF.) When that conference series drew
to a close in 1997 it was he who led the creation of a follow-on
series Turbulence & Shear Flow Phenomena (TSFP) that is now
established as providing the premier conference series bridging
fundamental and applied turbulence research. He also became,from 2004, an organizing committee member for the series ofconferences Transport Phenomena in Micro & Nano Devices and,from 2005, co-chair of the series Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow inMicroscale. His other major international roles included, from2009, the presidency of the Assembly of World Conferences onExperimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics & Thermodynamics
and, from 2010, the vice-presidency of the Assembly for International Heat Transfer Conferences. In this last position, in whatwas to be his final role as conference organizer, he masterminded
the 15th International Heat Transfer Conference in Kyoto in August
2014.
In the wake of these outstanding contributions it is unsurprising, indeed manifestly fitting, that Professor Kasagi should havebeen the recipient of numerous national and international
honours. We select from many others for special note that: in2002 he was admitted to the Engineering Academy of Japan; in2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy ofSciences; and in 2007 an International Fellow of the UK’s Royal
Academy of Engineering. Besides admission to these nationalacademies, in 2010 he was the inaugural recipient of the WilliamBegell Medal and Honorarium, awarded every four years for‘excellence in thermal science and engineering’, and in 2012 thewinner of the Luikov Medal for ‘outstanding contributions tothe science and art of heat and mass transfer and for activities ininternational scientific cooperation’.
Even following his mandatory retirement from the University ofTokyo in 2012, as an emeritus professor he continued to serve theUniversity and many academic enterprises while, in addition, hetook up the position of Deputy Director and Principal Fellow of
the Center of Research Development Strategy of the Japan Science& Technology Agency.

To close on a personal note, for those privileged to know
Professor Kasagi closely, both within IJHFF and without, he wasmuch more than an outstanding academic – he was a very goodfriend! Nobu always brought the qualities of collegiality, reliability, loyalty, and understanding to his interactions with us, invariably sprinkled with a generous measure of good humour. Finally,
this tribute would be incomplete without mention of Nobu’swife, Hiroko, who tirelessly supported him in his ceremonialroles with her effortless charm. To her and to their twodaughters we express our deepest sympathy at their loss
coupled with the hope that in the fullness of time their sorrow
be replaced by immense pride at Nobu’s outstanding contributions and achievements.
Former Editors-in-Chief of IJHFF
Thomas Gatski
Brian LaunderFrank Schmidt
Editors-in-Chief, IJHFF
Suad Jakirlic
Andrew Pollard
Publisher, IJHFF
Keith Lambert