www.rheology-esr.org/About.php?dos=Awards&page=Weissenb -
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Published on: 1/1/2002
Last Visited: 2/5/2008
I have tried "Ken Walters" ; the result was astonishing ! 59600 entries !"Ken Walters becomes president of HiddenMind,"Ken Walters artist and illustrator,"Ken Walters, a base-ball reference,"The legend of Ken Walters","Poetry by Ken Walters".
Although I am very much aware of Ken's talents, I could not really recognize our colleague.However, some further entries attracted my closer attention :"Ken Walters can teach just about anyone to ski",(which would certainly remind a number of rheologists of exciting meetings and seminars in the French Alps),"What really sank the Titanic ? Why don't you ask Ken Walters ?",(Ken, did you discover a new effect ?),or, even better,"Hard science solves the mystery of a soft drink".
I could not resist the urge to open the corresponding web-site where I discovered the story of a research student in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, who was working on an extraordinary project : to solve the mystery of the world's most visually stunning soft drink.His supervisor, Professor Ken Walters, on a visit to New-York, had come across an amazing drink called Orbitz : brightly coloured beads of gel are perfectly suspended in the surrounding transparent liquid.It appears solid, yet when poured it has the consistency of water.A votre santé ! "Just why these gel-like particles remain suspended apparently indefinitely seemed a fascinating question", said Ken Walters.Upon returning to Wales, Ken ordered several cases of Orbitz from the manufacturer and gave a most interesting assignment to his student which, I quote the latter, "meant using lots of mathematics and learning how to use a variety of instruments and techniques which was an ideal way to learn".
The rest of the story belongs to Ken, who would certainly tell you more about the behaviour of Orbitz fluids.It is an illuminating story because, within a few lines, it tells us about what I would call the invariants of Ken's career : a fascination with physical phenomena ; a real urge to understand their origin ; mathematical rigor and the use of the most efficient tools, whether analytical or computational ; a continuous presence in the laboratory which led to a renowned expertise in rheometry and, last but not least, a strong leadership and inspiration to students and colleagues.
Forty-five years ago, Professor Ken Walters received his own inspiration from Professor Jim Oldroyd who introduced him to the exploration of the almost virgin field of elasto-viscous fluid mechanics, at a time when Navier-Stokes equations were for many academics the sole approach to the description of viscous behaviour.
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At the outset, Ken devoted his analytical skills to the solution of flows in cylindrical, spherical or parallel plate geometries, not because of their apparent simplicity ; rather, an appropriate combination of constitutive models, of mathematical analysis and of laboratory experiments would allow him to understand what really happens in a rheometer.At a very early stage, he engaged into the use of computational methods to go beyond the capabilities of analytical work ; many of his former students are still pursuing his pioneering work in computational non-Newtonian fluid mechanics.A careful inspection of Ken's list of publications reveals how much he is concerned with rigor and with the confusion between reality and appearance in experiments ; what else should we expect when a mathematician is willing to enter the laboratory ? His world-recognized expertise has led, a.e., to new designs in rheometry, to the use of complex test-fluids and to industrial applications related to pipe-flow, lubrication and suspension rheology.
I wouldn't comment more on Ken's outstanding scientific contributions which were duly recognized when he received the Gold Medal of the British Society of Rheology in 1984, when he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1991 and as Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States in 1995.
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One might deduce that Professor Walters was not fond of scientific journals.Quite to the contrary ! In 1976, Ken created the new Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics which he has been editing for 25 years, from volume 1 up to 100 ! JNNFM, as it is nick-named, has quickly become a standard of our field, with its own style and preferred topics, mixing with perfect alchemy traditional fluid mechanics, computational mechanics and the specifics of rheology.
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Finally, should I remind you that Professor Walters is an exceptional teacher who, for the last forty-five years, has captivated on all continents audiences of all ages with introductions to or advances in rheology ?
I was mentioning earlier about a web-site entitled "The legend of Ken Walters".Shouldnt' we rather elaborate on "The secret of Ken Walters" ? How did he acquire such an endless energy to achieve with great success so many undertakings, while showing at the same time so little strain and so much hospitality ? Many of my friends in this room keep as much as I do fond memories of their visits to Aberystwyth.These were indeed memorable visits where exciting group discussions would alternate with seminars, hard work, delightful lunches prepared by Mary and dinners in the latest gourmet restaurant.Ken and Mary are delightful hosts.
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And also we hope, Ken and Mary,
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Ken, you will love to hear that one of your achievements, in Bob's message, is that you have kept alive the memory of Jim Oldroyd.
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Whereas Professor Ken Walters has devoted 45 years of intense research to the benefit of rheology,
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His colleagues, members of the European Society of Rheology, ask you to bestow on Professor Ken Walters the Weissenberg Award for lifetime contributions to rheology.
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