International Journal of Multiphase Flow 65 (2014) 157–158

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International Journal of Multiphase Flowj o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / i j m u l fl o w

Professor Howard Brenner(16.3.1929–18.2.2014)
Howard Brenner, my mentor and, later, a very good friend has
passed away just before reaching the age of 85. ‘‘A bright light
has gone out’’ to quote a colleague passing to me the news of hisdeath. Being among his ﬁrst Post Docs I was privileged to workwith him and not under him. He endeared himself to me by making
me feel that we stand on the same pedestal despite the fact that hewas already a renowned researcher and I was experiencing my ﬁrst
steps in the world of science. His enthusiasm about ‘‘doing’’
research was unparalleled and continued until his very last days.
There was no ‘‘small talk’’ with Howard. A clear indication of Howard’s unbounded passion towards research was a comment madeby his wife Lisa. She complained that despite the fact that he wasaway from home many times, he almost never went touring thearea and stayed at the hotel room making it his extended ofﬁce.
His generosity and affection was well known by many of hisfriends. Many summers my wife and I were invited to stay in
Howard’s apartment at the Back Bay and lately in Lisa’s house by
Crystal Lake. Our stay was peppered with his unique sense ofhumor, where self-deprecation was the motto.
I already miss you.
The following portrays brieﬂy milestones in Howard’s longscientiﬁc road to fame.1 Howard Brenner, born in the Bronx to anunderprivileged family, was proud to have become the Willard H.
1
Some of the factual data are based on ‘‘Howard Brenner’s Legacy.. So Far’’ written
to honor Howard’s 80th birthday by Dorfman, Rinaldi Ramos and Yariv Chem. Eng.
Comm. 197, 1, (2009).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseﬂow.2014.06.001

Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, ‘‘the country’s bestschool’’, from 1981 until his retirement four years ago. Prior to histime at MIT, Howard was on the faculties at New York University(1955–1965), Carnegie Mellon University (1966–1977), and the University of Rochester (1977–1981). During this time, he conductedfundamental research in a number of areas in ﬂuid mechanics andtransport phenomena. His seminal work on creeping ﬂows and his
book together with John Happel, ‘‘Low Reynolds Number Hydrodynamics’’, has become the ‘‘bible’’ on Stokes ﬂows and has been translated into many languages. His work on suspension rheology, andgeneralizations of Taylor and Aris’s theories of solute dispersion
was followed by the comprehensive development of macrotransport
theory. At the age of 70 he was engaged in a completely new ﬁeldthat dealt with what he perceived as an ambiguous and very profound notion of ﬂuid velocity. Is there a difference between mass,momentum and volume velocities and how does it affect theNavier–Stokes equations. His suggestions were confronted by askeptical community of ﬂuid mechanicians. Lately his articles wereaccepted for publication after an uphill struggle. This episode epitomizes Howard’s ability to ﬁght for his views no matter how hard it
gets.
Howard’s research efforts have resulted in more than 200 articles, 35 book chapters, and three books. Howard’s work on porous
media and suspension rheology was summarized in two review
articles in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. Many of hispapers have had a tremendous impact on the development andapplications of microhydrodynamics. Of these, perhaps the most
famous are his two 1967 articles (together with Cox and Goldman)on low-Reynolds-number wall effects, each of them having been
cited more than 500 times.
He insisted that one should work on fundamental problems
without worrying about their application. It can come later.
Howard’s investigation on low Reynolds number hydrodynamics,
a forty years old work, is an excellent example. The tensorial
formulation for the hydrodynamic drag force exerted on small
particles of various sizes and shapes and the effect of near surfaces
has been applied only recently in bioengineering and macro- andnano-technology.
Howard’s research and teaching accomplishments have beenrecognized by numerous awards. He was elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 1980 and to the National Academy of
Sciences in 2000. He was also a fellow of the American Instituteof Chemical Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Mechanics. Professor
Brenner has won all three major AIChE society awards, receiving

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Personal report / International Journal of Multiphase Flow 65 (2014) 157–158

the Alpha Xi Sigma award for Chemical Engineering Research in
1976, the William H. Walker Award for Excellence in Contributions
to Chemical Engineering Literature in 1985, and the Warren K.
Lewis Award for Chemical Engineering Education in 1999. The ﬂuid
mechanics community has recognized his work with the Bingham
Medal from the Society of Rheology in 1980 and the Fluid Dynamics Prize from the American Physical Society in 2001.
While awards and publications play an important role of Howard’s legacy, one should not fail to mention the many students andpostdoctoral researchers from all over the world who were privi-leged to work with him. His legacy continues to live in their hearts
and minds.
Indeed, a bright light has gone out but many, many lights wererekindled all over the globe. My dear and beloved friend: rest inpeace, the torch is passed on to the next generation.
Professor
Shimon Haber
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel