International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 52 (2009) 2923–2924

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

In Celebration

Professor Kwang-Tzu Yang on his 80th birthday

It may come as a surprise that Professor Kwang-Tzu Yang celebrated his 80th birthday on November 12, 2008, to those whoknow him and his work. Over the years, Professor Yang, or KT as
he is fondly known, has made signiﬁcant contributions to boththe ﬁeld and the community of thermal sciences and engineering.
This must thus be another proof that continuous dedication to efﬁciency upgrade of heat transfer and knowledge ﬂow processes creates the reversible effect of Thermodynamics, in this case in theform of de-ageing.
Professor Yang was born on November 12, 1928 in China, where
he completed his early education. He moved to the USA in 1948
and received his BS (1951) and MS (1952) degrees in mechanicalengineering and his PhD (1955) degree in heat transfer under thesupervision of the late Professor Max Jakob, all from the Illinois
Institute of Technology. He then joined the University of Notre
Dame and became the Viola D. Hank Professor of Engineering in1985. In 1998, he ofﬁcially retired from the university and became
the Viola D. Hank Professor Emeritus. However, not to anybody’s
surprise, he does not believe in restful retirement. He has maintained his ofﬁce at the University of Notre Dame, where he continues with many of his academic and professional activities,
including the supervision of doctoral students, the writing of research proposals and technical papers, the editorship of journals,
providing reviews and recommendation letters, and the organization of conferences. During his long stay at the University of Notre
Dame, Professor Yang served the university in various capacities,
including the chairmanship for the Department of Mechanical
doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2009.01.039

Engineering and the Department of Aerospace and MechanicalEngineering over a period of 10 years. He received many awards
for his distinguished teaching, research and service, such as theSpecial Presidential Award, the Graduate School Award and theFaculty Award.
Professor Yang’s contributions to research and engineering
practice are distinguished by their breadth, originality, comprehensiveness and impact. He is not afraid to go wherever his interests may take him. It is this approach that has led him to makemany landmark contributions in what, to a casual observer, might
appear to be a diversity of ﬁelds. Examples of these areas include
natural convection, heat exchanger dynamics, hydronic systems,
application of artiﬁcial neural networks, oscillating ﬂows, forest
ﬁres, modeling of large ﬁres and ﬁre whirls, tribology, food andmaterials processing, thermal systems and technology transfer.
Yet to him it is all simply a search for understanding and a partof the unity of knowledge. He also views teaching and research
as integrated and non-separable units. It is typical that, if he has
to teach a topic, his interest is aroused and research inevitably follows. The converse is also true, in that if he does research on a topic
he will also want to teach it. Indeed, teaching plays an equal, if not
more important, role in Professor Yang’s thinking, and he is always
looking for new ways of stimulating the interest of his audienceand of getting them to participate in the quest for understanding.
Over the years, Professor Yang has pioneered many new research
topics by searching the interplay among different disciplines,by questioning existing concepts and principles, by uncovering

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In Celebration / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 52 (2009) 2923–2924

fundamental underlying mechanisms, by mapping domains ofapplicability, by formulating methods to quantify phenomena, andby combining technical insight, theoretical analysis and focusedexperiments. Hence, he has secured over 96 projects funded by diverse federal funding agencies and industries and has publishedover 240 technical papers, many of which have been widely usedby researchers all over the world. In recognition of his outstanding
contributions to the ﬁeld of thermal sciences and engineering, hewas awarded the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award in 1981,
the JSME Foreign Researcher Award in 2002 and ASME-AIChE Max
Jakob Memorial Award in 2007. Professor Yang has also been ingreat demand as a consultant by many organizations and industries
like Dodge Division, Rockwell International, Tyler Refrigeration
Corporation and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Professor Yang has inspired and guided more than 70 graduate
students, including 33 PhD students, many of whom are wellknown scholars and leaders in their own way today. In theclassroom, Professor Yang is always very dynamic to convey hisenthusiasm in the subject and teaching to students and to stimulate their interest in the subject and learning. His clear andmethodical lectures, simple charm, unassuming manner and dedication to work have made him extremely popular with students.
He has also given keynote lectures at various national and international conferences and invited lectures in many universities, industries and organizations around the world. His lectures always takethe audience on a fascinating and enjoyable journey with his physical insight and deep understanding. In 1978, for example, Professor Yang was invited to China to teach a 6-week short course on
Recent Advances in Thermal Convection to a group of over 100
professors in Heat Transfer from a large number of universities inChina who went to Xi’an Jiaotong University to get an idea on what
were the latest advances in Convection Research outside China. At
that time, very little was going on in HT research in China, and Professor Yang opened the door for them to the beautiful world ofConvection and inspired HT Research in the New China.
Professor Yang’s contributions to the heat transfer community
are equally outstanding and far reaching. He has made a very positive and lasting impact on the direction and quality of heat transfer
research through his dedicated editorial work as the editor or advisory board member of several prestigious journals, as the SeniorTechnical Editor of the Journal of Heat Transfer (1980–1985) andthe North American Editor of the International Journal of Experimental Thermal Science, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics(1986–1994) in particular. His service is continually sought onadvisory bodies, with participation at NSF, ASME, ASEE, DOE, andthe International Center of Heat and Mass Transfer. He has co-organized several important conferences and chaired numerous professional society activities, including the Executive Committee of theHeat Transfer Division of ASME. His technical advice is sought andvalued throughout the international community of thermal sciences and engineering. In recognition of his many important andselﬂess contributions to the society, Professor Yang was awarded
the ASME Dedicated Service Award in 1993 and the ASME HeatTransfer Distinguished Service Award in 1998.
What most friends, students and colleagues ﬁnd particularly
impressive about Professor Yang is his humility, sense of humor,
pleasant demeanor, and willingness to help. These qualities, whichhave become rare in the busy and competitive world we live in today, are the very essence of KT’s life. It is wonderful to see such aneminent member of the community willing to advise and help
younger researchers and students. This willingness to share histime, knowledge and experience has had a signiﬁcant impact on
the careers of many young scientists and engineers. He has beena great role model to many and certainly the community will gain
immensely if other leading scholars like KT were to follow the path
paved by him in this regard.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday, his friends, colleagues, former students and editors of this journal throughout the world
would like to thank Professor Yang for his outstanding contributions and dedicated service to the community and wish him, hiswife, Heather, and his entire family good health, prosperity andhappiness.
Liqiu Wang
Yogesh Jaluria
Matthew Kelleher
John LloydW.J. Minkowycz
Mihir Sen
Ramesh Shah
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Tel.: +852 2859 7908; fax: +852 2858 5415 (L. Wang)
E-mail address: lqwang@hku.hk (L. Wang)
Available online 26 March 2009