Memorial Tributes Volume 17 (2013) / Chapter Skim
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OWEN M. PHILLIPS
OWEN M. PHILLIPS
Pages 244-249
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From page 244... ...
Photo courtesy of Special Collections, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University
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From page 245... ...
TULIN OWEN MARTIN PHILLIPS, Decker Professor of Science and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) , chairman of the JHU Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, widely known for his penetrating fluid dynamical studies of important ocean and geophysical problems, beloved teacher, mentor, colleague, beloved husband of Merle, and father of Lynette, Christopher, Bronwyn, and Michael, died on October 13, 2010, in Chestertown, Maryland, at age 79.
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From page 246... ...
and quickly initiating his own distinctive research reported in 10 papers between 1955 and 1958. In these earliest papers Phillips already displayed the exceptional characteristics that marked all his future works: a ready dedication to real and substantial physical problems needing explication; an ability to combine physical understanding and simplification with lean but elegant and cogent mathematical analysis; refined scholarship; a readiness to provide useful answers; a curiosity and ambition for extending and broadening his scientific inquiries; and a specific interest in and attraction to scientific problems of the ocean.
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From page 247... ...
Almost immediately, and thereafter, the "Phillips Spectrum" dominated the description and understanding of the distribution of energy among ocean waves, even as the question became of greatly increased importance in the approaching age of great ocean structures and of ocean remote sensing from space. Phillips moved on from Cambridge in 1957 to the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where he remained until his retirement in 1998 apart from a multiyear break in Cambridge as an assistant director of research (1961–1964)
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From page 248... ...
There are, indeed, few natural phenomena involving surface or internal waves arising in nature to which he did not give his attention, including internal wave generation, spectra, and propagation; circulation and mixing in estuaries; clear air turbulence; extreme and rogue waves; V-shaped ship wakes; and radar remote sensing of the ocean surface. His interest in geological processes led to "assembling fragments of evidence" in The Heart of the Earth (1968; translated into Italian in 1970)
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From page 249... ...
For almost 40 years, Owen and I enjoyed a summer home on Cape Cod just up the road from the Woods Hole Marine Biological Labs where Owen had done some work. This kind, gentle, brilliant man is much missed, beyond his beloved family and his university, by his admiring colleagues throughout the world, including his former students, many of whom are researchers themselves.
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