Теодор фон Карман: Математик, ғарыш инженері және физик

Hungarian American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist (1881–1963)

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Theodore von Kármán (([[Szőlőskislak , born Tivadar Mihály Kármán, 11 May 18816 May 1963), was a Hungarian American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who worked in aeronautics and astronautics. He was responsible for crucial advances in aerodynamics characterizing supersonic and hypersonic airflow. The human defined threshold of outer space is named the "Kármán line" in recognition of his work. Kármán is regarded as an outstanding aerodynamic theoretician of the 20th century.

In June 1944, von Kármán underwent surgery for intestinal cancer in New York City. The surgery caused two hernias, and Kármán's recovery was slow. Early in September, while still in New York, he met US Army Air Forces Commanding General Henry H. Arnold on a runway at LaGuardia Airport, and Arnold then proposed that Kármán should move to Washington, D. C. to lead the Scientific Advisory Group and become a long range planning consultant to the military. Kármán returned to Pasadena around mid September, was appointed to the SAG position on October 23, 1944, and left Caltech in December 1944. At the age of 81 Kármán was the recipient of the first National Medal of Science, bestowed in a White House ceremony by President John F. Kennedy. He was recognized, "For his leadership in the science and engineering basic to aeronautics; for his effective teaching and related contributions in many fields of mechanics, for his distinguished counsel to the Armed Services, and for his promoting international cooperation in science and engineering." Kármán never married. He died on a trip to Aachen, West Germany, in 1963, five days short of his 82nd birthday, and his body was returned to the United States to be entombed in the Beth Olam Mausoleum at what is now the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He has sometimes been described as one of The Martians. Kármán's fame was in the use of mathematical tools to study fluid flow, and the interpretation of those results to guide practical designs. He was instrumental in recognizing the importance of swept back wings ubiquitous in modern jet aircraft.

Four years after Kármán died his autobiography The Wind and Beyond was published by Lee Edson with Little, Brown and Company. Seven major academic journals then followed with book reviews by noted authors: As the book was non technical, written for the general reader, Thomas P. Hughes cited that as problematic given the technical context of Kármán's work. Hughes conceded that Kármán "exhibited a genius for finding the simplifying assumptions that made possible the mathematical analysis." While acknowledging Kármán's gifts as an applied mathematician and teacher, Stanley Corrsin points out that the autobiography is "marriage between a man and his ego." In the later part of his life, Kármán was a "planner of global symposia and societies" and a "consultant to the upper echelons of the Pentagon corps." On creativity, Kármán wrote "the finest creative thought comes not out of organized teams but out of the quiet of one's own world." I. B. Holley noted "penetrating insights into the creative process, its ingredients, nurture and exploitation." According to Holley, Kármán was given to "convivial drinking and the company of beautiful women." An enthusiastic review by J. Kestin advised readers to buy and study the book, and prize it as a reference. On the other hand, Charles Süsskind faults Kármán for his contempt for the conventional (gaminarie). Süsskind expected the book to show some reaction to Wernher von Braun's coming to America, and some clarification of the Hsue shen Tsien affair, rather than "lapses into generalities". Süsskind also tags Kármán as a militarist: a "forthright engineer who is quite unabashed about his lifelong association with military authorities in whatever country he happened to reside at the time." Sydney Goldstein, who also wrote the Royal Society memoir for Kármán, reviewed the autobiography and remembered "an eminent engineer and scientist, warm hearted and witty, much traveled, well known by many, devoted to international collaboration, who, in his own words, as a scientist found the military 'the most comfortable group to deal with'".

Kármán was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1938, the American Philosophical Society in 1941, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948. Each year since 1960 the American Society of Civil Engineers has awarded to an individual the Theodore von Karman Medal, "in recognition of distinguished achievement in engineering mechanics." Established in 1968, the Theodore von Kármán Prize has been awarded by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics to recognize outstanding application of mathematics in mechanics or engineering. In 1968, Kármán was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame. Established in 1983, the Theodore von Kármán Award has been awarded annually by the International Academy of Astronautics to recognize outstanding lifetime achievements in any branch of science without limit of nationality or sex. In 2005 Kármán was named as an Honorary Fellow of the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC). Fellows of the AEDC are recognized as "People who have made exceptionally distinguished contributions to the center's flight testing mission." Craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honor. The boundary between the atmosphere and space is named the Kármán line. In Irvine, CA there is a five mile street in the heart of Irvine's business center named after him. In 1977, RWTH Aachen University named its newly constructed main lecture hall complex "Kármán Auditorium" in memory of Kármán's outstanding research contributions at the university's Aeronautical Institute. An auditorium at JPL is named after Kármán, as is a series of monthly lectures held there since 2007. An auditorium at AFRL is named after Arnold and Kármán. University of Southern California Professor Shirley Thomas (after nearly two decades of petitioning) was able to create a postage stamp in his honor. In 1963 President Kennedy awarded Kármán the National Medal of Science: "Dr. von Karman, it is a great pleasure for me to select you as the first recipient of the National Medal of Science. I know of no one else who more completely represents all of the areas with which this award is appropriately concerned—science, engineering, and education." In 1957, Kármán became the first recipient of the Ludwig Prandtl Ring from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft und Raumfahrt (German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics) for "outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace engineering." In 1956 Kármán founded a research institute in Sint Genesius Rode, Belgium, which is now named after him: the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics. In 1948 Kármán was awarded the Franklin Medal. The American Mathematical Society selected Kármán as its Josiah Willard Gibbs Lecturer for 1939. The International von Kármán Wings Award Banquet is an annual affair. The only still airworthy Lisunov Li 2 plane (reg. HA LIX) has been named Kármán Tódor in 2002. In 1983, He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.