International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow 28 (2007) 539–540
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Kenjiro Suzuki – in Memoriam

On April 25th, 2007 Professor Kenjiro Suzuki, one of
the most active and respected international leaders in theheat transfer, turbulence and combustion communities,
passed away at the age of 67 after a year-long battle against
progressive cancer. While his family members devoted
themselves to every possible support for his struggle, they,
like the rest of the thermo-ﬂuids community, were numbedat the sudden and tragically premature departure of Professor Suzuki who still had so much left to give. Indeed, because throughout his career he so strongly promoted
international collaboration, he was admired and respectedaround the world as much for his personal qualities as forhis research contributions.
Professor Suzuki was born in Shanghai on January 3,1940, and spent his early years in Okayama. After working
in industry for a year following his graduation, he returnedto the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kyoto
University as Instructor in 1964, and obtained the degreeof Doctor of Engineering from the University in 1971.
He was appointed to Associate Professor in 1975 and Professor in 1986. There he remained until his mandatory
retirement in 2003 when he moved to Shibaura Instituteof Technology in Tokyo.
Over his professional career he made extremely broad
contributions to the advancement of knowledge in turbulence and associated heat/mass transfer, in unsteady convective heat transfer, two-phase-ﬂow heat transfer,doi:10.1016/j.ijheatﬂuidﬂow.2007.05.005

crystal-growth processes, and in combustion. In recentyears, he became deeply involved in sustainable energy,
especially fuel cells as well as a hybrid fuel-cell/gas-turbine
system for distributed generation. In many respects hiswork was truly pioneering, employing novel methods andtechniques based on his original theoretical considerations.
His work in turbulence and turbulent heat transfer has always been of an exemplary standard. His contributions
ranged from very basic studies of turbulence structure to
turbulent convective heat transfer, impinging-jet heattransfer, control of turbulent ﬂows, and heat exchangers.
His theory on the ‘‘dissimilarity between momentum andheat transfer’’ has been veriﬁed in a turbulent boundary
layer with an inserted cylinder through his ﬁne experiments
and numerical simulations. These are just examples of how
his outstanding original research has advanced understanding of the complex mechanisms of convective heat transfer
and stimulated progress in computational heat transfer andﬂuid dynamics. He published more than 300 journal andconference papers on these subjects, delivered an array ofinvited and keynote lectures and supervised for their BS,
ME and Dr. Eng. theses numerous students, many ofwhom now play important roles in Academia and Industry.
He committed his energies to many international scientiﬁc and educational activities. He served as Editor for
Heat Transfer Japanese Research, and the International
Journal of Heat & Mass Transfer, his eﬀorts greatly

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Kenjiro Suzuki – in Memoriam / Int. J. Heat and Fluid Flow 28 (2007) 539–540

contributing to the high standing of these journals. In thearea of international conference organization, he worked
both as overall Conference Chairman and as Chairmanof the Papers Committee for the Ninth Symposium on Turbulent Shear Flows in Kyoto 1993, a meeting to which
three of the editors of this journal (BEL, FWS and NK)
were privileged to contribute. We know that many among
the turbulence research community greatly praised his
excellent scientiﬁc and administrative contributions to thatevent. His work as a Member of the Scientiﬁc Committeeof the 10th International Heat Transfer Conference(1994) and Chairman of the 10th International Symposiumon Transport Phenomena (1997) further demonstrated his
outstanding capacity for leadership. In recent years he also
worked enthusiastically in key roles for the International
Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer such as Chairman ofits Executive Committee. He was also appointed to prestigious visiting appointments at world-leading universities,serving as Springer Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Visiting Professor at the Institut National
Polytechnique de Grenoble, Burgers Professor at Delft
University of Technology, and a Guest Professor at the Japan Center of Stanford University.
He was a very active member of several professionalsocieties in Japan such as the Japan Society of MechanicalEngineers (JSME) for which he was Chair of the ThermalEngineering Division and the Heat Transfer Society ofJapan (HTSJ) where he served as its President. In recogni-tion of his excellent publications, lectures and contributions to the research communities in the USA, Europeand Asia he has received numerous awards and honors,
including the JSME Outstanding Paper Medal, the JSME
Thermal Engineering Award for Outstanding Leadership,
the HTSJ Award for Scientiﬁc Contributions, the Polish
Government Medal Komisji Edukacji Narodowej, and theFellowship Award of the International Centre for Heatand Mass Transfer.
Without doubt, his achievements above demonstrate hiskeen intellect, his professional judgment, and his great
capacity for high-level leadership while also attending toﬁne-scale, detailed administration. Those close to him alsoappreciated his sparkling wit and warm personality. Somesuggest that his open-minded disposition may have developed, in part, from his long association with the Rowing
Club of Kyoto University.
He was married to his wife, Akiko, for 43 years, andthey had two daughters, one son and a grandchild. We express our deepest sympathy to them in their great loss while
keeping our own enduring and very fond memories ofKenjiro Suzuki.
Thomas Gatski
Nobuhide Kasagi
Brian LaunderFrank Schmidt