- Email: [email protected]
Obituary: Eulogy1 for Prof. Allen T. Chwang
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Ocean Engineering 34 (2007) 2207–2209 www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng
Tribute
Obituary: Eulogy1 for Prof. Allen T. Chwang
Professor Allen T. Chwang (1944–2007) My dear Mrs. Gladys Chwang and dear Members of the Chwang Family, Distinguished Friends and Guests: We are assembled here to pay our sincere and earnest tribute to Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor Allen Chwang in memorial of his remarkable life and work. We have come here to renew our lifetime appreciation for what he accomplished in applying his gifted talents to discovering much new knowledge, to mentoring new generations of young talents to continue his contributions to his profession. It is a meeting of minds with gratification that we had so many passionate years together seeing what he did turn his tireless energy and witting know-how into benevolent deeds in serving his societies, motherland and our world. We are indeed here to celebrate the seeds he had disseminated with love to keep budding, blooming and propagating forward forever more. Professor Chwang was early known in his life to be brilliant, dedicated to what he undertook with strong interest and in high spirit, and was very well liked broadly 1 Editor (RCE): Professor Allen T. Chwang was an Editorial Board member of the Ocean Engineering journal and a good friend. This writing was delivered at the Memorial Service in the US (after the first one held at The Hong Kong University) by Professor Theodore Yaotsu Wu who was Allen’s advisor and mentor at Caltech.
0029-8018/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2007.09.004
for his good care for others and for our societies. He graduated number one from the most challenging Provincial High School of Shanghai, which was also my Alma Mater, thus giving me a big yard stick to measure how good he was. He then received his B.Sc. from Chu Hai College, Hong Kong in 1965, M.Sc. from University of Saskatchewan, Canada in 1967, distinctly number one again and again. I was very pleased having him chosen The California Institute of Technology we call Caltech for his Ph. D. study, and especially happy that he entered my research group seeking my advice. I had good opportunities of observing his talents in making deep insight to grasp the most important problem for investigation. As an English proverb saying, ‘‘A good beginning is half done.’’ In that light, it tells a lot seeing how Allen Chwang began his Ph. D. thesis study. In choosing a top favorite for his thesis topic, he was heard of telling his peers, ‘‘I have learned well from teacher. What’s important? Nothing more than obeying Newton’s first law. What’s grave wrong? Nothing more than violating Newton’s first law.’’ It was on that note that Allen grasped the problem to resolve the age-old spirochetal paradox long known broadly in biology, and this was warmly approved by my colleague, Max Delbroeck, a Nobel laureate. The paradox was then concerned with the biophysics of the self-locomotion of a single-cell microorganism called
ARTICLE IN PRESS 2208
Tribute / Ocean Engineering 34 (2007) 2207–2209
spirochete, just a helical–spring shaped cell from one end to the other, wiggling swiftly through the petri dish liquid. The long lasting sharp question, with no answer till then, was asking what would happen if the helical cell should move like a metal spring we knew, then how could it balance out the torque due to the viscous resistance of the liquid on the turning helix? If possible at all, it would then be absolutely impossible to move ahead in liquid by Newton’s fist law. Yet these cells not only do exist, but also occupy a huge branch on the bio-pedigree tree (compared to a much smaller one for the so-called Homo sapiens). A champion racer in that kingdom, called Vibrio comma bacilli (responsible for causing cholera epidemic), can shoot forward easily over fifty body lengths per second, like a slow arrow, leaving human champion, like Mark Spitz winning several Olympic medals, way behind. So, how do they do it? The principal hypothesis Allen Chwang held was based on assuming that the sheath of the cell should have to spin opposite to the helical turning of the cell to gain a net zero torque in fulfilling Newton’s first law. His Ph.D. thesis, accomplished in 1971 with my counseling advice, published entitled ‘‘A note on the helical movement of micro-organisms,’’ in Proc. Royal Society, London, B. 178, 327–346 (1971), did contribute to resolving an age-old ‘spirochetal paradox.’’ Upon submission of the paper, it won at once special attention of Sir James Gray, then the dean of animal locomotion in the field, and Sir James Lighthill, eminent Secretary of then Royal Society. Incidentally, I have just received words that our microbiologists have found sound evidences that spirochetes do possess interior microfibrils like tendons that can spin internally for propelling the cell, a wonderful news that would have cheered Allen himself. Back on historical track, this international recognition of our group research contributions helped built a golden bridge between Cambridge University and Caltech. This led to the very first of a series of Symposium entitled ‘‘Swimming and flying in Nature’’ that we held at Caltech in 1974 with the world leaders attending. During this era of international collaboration, Dr. Allen Chwang won his John Guggenheim Fellowship for 1 year privilege of academic visit at Cambridge University, on leave from Caltech, to work closely with Sir James Lighthill and Sir James Gray. In this period, he worked with the Engineering Science group at home to have developed a series of publications on various exact singular solutions to the Stokes equations that have ever been widely adopted by researchers in all fields for resolving viscous-effects-dominated low-Reynolds-number flow phenomena, with life or lifeless, as found in exterior or interior domains of the micron scale. At the other extreme of highReynolds-number regime, his works with co-authors on submerged or floating body–body interactions attained a generalized Sir G. I. Taylor’s formula for the added mass tensor of the entrained fluid. In another quite unrelated field, his dedicated studies with Prof. George Housner, father of earth-quake engineering at Caltech, on the earth-quake effects on
dam-reservoir systems extended von Karman’s theory by ascertaining the effects due to sloping submerged dam faces, density stratification of reservoir water, and the nonlinear fluid effects on accelerating dams, yielding results henceforth widely used by dam engineers. With his expertise gained in the geo-physical and oceanographical fields, Dr. Chwang’s keen vigilance attracted his attention to the emerging hazards of maritime transportation due to the increasingly stronger water waves in The Victoria Harbor of Hong Kong. This inspired him to apply his earlier work on the so-called porous wall wave-absorber originally for application to reduction of sound waves, thence anew to water waves in harbors. His special knowledge and excellent planning won him a major funding by open invitation from the Hong Kong Government. He led his group to have carried out field and laboratory experiments and theoretical analysis in acquiring a successful innovative design for protecting harbor banks and infrastructures by reducing wave energy to acceptable levels at affordable costs. A 100-meter long prototype porous seawall has been constructed in The Victoria Harbor as a shining token of a highly benevolent task accomplished by the fruitful devotion sparkled from a seed of curiosity of Prof. Chwang’s. In recent year or two, it was exciting to learn of the very farreaching program Allen had been pioneering with a good number of universities in China to pursue joint projects on the coastal and deep ocean physics, engineering and oceanography, oceanic resources, ocean biology, and ocean environment, even if they were only in the inceptive stage. Nonetheless, the high spirit in the encouragement by its marching in steps will be carried on by those following. Needless to go any further, the colorful life and work of Professor Allen T. Chwang briefly highlighted here should amply illustrate that the marvelous labor and efforts dedicated by Prof. Chwang to his professional career will keep disseminating seeds for beautiful new growths in perpetuating his fruitful achievements and his voluminous writings. It was truly a little wonder how he could have taken on so much heavy-duty tasks yet without perhaps overworking himself. Professor Allen Chwang’s professional services are no less colorful. He had been serving on the Editorial Board of the Ocean Engineering journal. In addition, he has been long lauded internationally for his tremendous contributions to our profession and regional governments. As devoted members and Fellows of various scientific and engineering societies, he rendered splendid services as Chair of The Engineering Mechanics Division (EMD) Executive Committee, The EMD Fluids Committee, Turbulence Committee, and on The Advisory Board of ASCE, and as Advisor or Chair of ASME and many other Societies. He always responded with enthusiasm to requests as Advisory or Honorary Professor to numerous universities and as Advisor to The Hong Kong Government, yielding beneficial results deeply appreciated. He was acclaimed for his congenial personality that his presence would be enough to melt conflicts prevailing. To express deep appreciation for his valuable contributions and leadership, a similar eulogy was
ARTICLE IN PRESS Tribute / Ocean Engineering 34 (2007) 2207–2209
dispatched to the thousands of members of the EMD of the American Society of Civil Engineers by its Division Chair. Professor Allen Tse-Yung Chwang lived a remarkable life and endowed a splendid legacy of great significances to academics and far beyond. Among the numerous honors and awards bestowed upon him, he was elected Member of The Hong Kong Academy of Engineering and an Academician of The Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was recognized worldwide as a leading fluid mechanicist, hydrodynamicist, and applied mathematician. The vast scope of his interests led him to profound studies in various fields related to biophysical and geophysical fluid mechanics and applied mathematics. He was so gifted with his creative talents as to develop new mathematical methods for powerful tools needed for cracking challenging physical phenomena under investigation. And it is exceedingly gratifying in fond memory of having him arise to team up with Prof. Dan Valentine and Prof. Michelle Teng in holding our most delightful Vancouver Symposium2 to enrich our precious friendship and life long learning.
2 Editor (RCE): The Theodore Y.-T. Wu Symposium on Engineering Mechanics was held to honor Professor Wu for his 80th birthday on 21–22 June 2004 in Vancouver during the OMAE 2004 Conference annually held by ASME. More than 45 original papers presented during the Symposium were published in a book: Chwang, A.T., Teng, M.H and Valentine, D.T. (2005) ‘‘Advances in Engineering Mechanics: Reflections and Outlooks,’’ World Scientific, Singapore, xvi+730pp.
2209
Finally, I would like to bring forth the charming personal legacy left as a marvelous gift by Allen Tze-Yung Chwang to keep enriching those for emulation. He was most personable, open-hearted, enlightening, full of wit, humorous with entertaining dry jokes that would render any English gentleman burst open to laughs, and laughter oft following his steps. He certainly possessed a severe side for business, to anything desired for improvement. His role-modeling dedications to research-and-teaching and mentoring have advanced all the Institutions he had served to ones of more renown. In seriousness, he exerted leadership in holding our most delightful Vancouver Symposium to enrich our precious friendship and life long learning. He loved his dear wife and family. He also loved his career, profession, and with love, all seem to grow big and great, in his memorial.
Theodore Yaotsu Wu, 28 July 2007 E-mail address: [email protected]
Ocean Engineering 34 (2007) 2207–2209 www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng
Tribute
Obituary: Eulogy1 for Prof. Allen T. Chwang
Professor Allen T. Chwang (1944–2007) My dear Mrs. Gladys Chwang and dear Members of the Chwang Family, Distinguished Friends and Guests: We are assembled here to pay our sincere and earnest tribute to Sir Robert Ho Tung Professor Allen Chwang in memorial of his remarkable life and work. We have come here to renew our lifetime appreciation for what he accomplished in applying his gifted talents to discovering much new knowledge, to mentoring new generations of young talents to continue his contributions to his profession. It is a meeting of minds with gratification that we had so many passionate years together seeing what he did turn his tireless energy and witting know-how into benevolent deeds in serving his societies, motherland and our world. We are indeed here to celebrate the seeds he had disseminated with love to keep budding, blooming and propagating forward forever more. Professor Chwang was early known in his life to be brilliant, dedicated to what he undertook with strong interest and in high spirit, and was very well liked broadly 1 Editor (RCE): Professor Allen T. Chwang was an Editorial Board member of the Ocean Engineering journal and a good friend. This writing was delivered at the Memorial Service in the US (after the first one held at The Hong Kong University) by Professor Theodore Yaotsu Wu who was Allen’s advisor and mentor at Caltech.
0029-8018/$ - see front matter doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2007.09.004
for his good care for others and for our societies. He graduated number one from the most challenging Provincial High School of Shanghai, which was also my Alma Mater, thus giving me a big yard stick to measure how good he was. He then received his B.Sc. from Chu Hai College, Hong Kong in 1965, M.Sc. from University of Saskatchewan, Canada in 1967, distinctly number one again and again. I was very pleased having him chosen The California Institute of Technology we call Caltech for his Ph. D. study, and especially happy that he entered my research group seeking my advice. I had good opportunities of observing his talents in making deep insight to grasp the most important problem for investigation. As an English proverb saying, ‘‘A good beginning is half done.’’ In that light, it tells a lot seeing how Allen Chwang began his Ph. D. thesis study. In choosing a top favorite for his thesis topic, he was heard of telling his peers, ‘‘I have learned well from teacher. What’s important? Nothing more than obeying Newton’s first law. What’s grave wrong? Nothing more than violating Newton’s first law.’’ It was on that note that Allen grasped the problem to resolve the age-old spirochetal paradox long known broadly in biology, and this was warmly approved by my colleague, Max Delbroeck, a Nobel laureate. The paradox was then concerned with the biophysics of the self-locomotion of a single-cell microorganism called
ARTICLE IN PRESS 2208
Tribute / Ocean Engineering 34 (2007) 2207–2209
spirochete, just a helical–spring shaped cell from one end to the other, wiggling swiftly through the petri dish liquid. The long lasting sharp question, with no answer till then, was asking what would happen if the helical cell should move like a metal spring we knew, then how could it balance out the torque due to the viscous resistance of the liquid on the turning helix? If possible at all, it would then be absolutely impossible to move ahead in liquid by Newton’s fist law. Yet these cells not only do exist, but also occupy a huge branch on the bio-pedigree tree (compared to a much smaller one for the so-called Homo sapiens). A champion racer in that kingdom, called Vibrio comma bacilli (responsible for causing cholera epidemic), can shoot forward easily over fifty body lengths per second, like a slow arrow, leaving human champion, like Mark Spitz winning several Olympic medals, way behind. So, how do they do it? The principal hypothesis Allen Chwang held was based on assuming that the sheath of the cell should have to spin opposite to the helical turning of the cell to gain a net zero torque in fulfilling Newton’s first law. His Ph.D. thesis, accomplished in 1971 with my counseling advice, published entitled ‘‘A note on the helical movement of micro-organisms,’’ in Proc. Royal Society, London, B. 178, 327–346 (1971), did contribute to resolving an age-old ‘spirochetal paradox.’’ Upon submission of the paper, it won at once special attention of Sir James Gray, then the dean of animal locomotion in the field, and Sir James Lighthill, eminent Secretary of then Royal Society. Incidentally, I have just received words that our microbiologists have found sound evidences that spirochetes do possess interior microfibrils like tendons that can spin internally for propelling the cell, a wonderful news that would have cheered Allen himself. Back on historical track, this international recognition of our group research contributions helped built a golden bridge between Cambridge University and Caltech. This led to the very first of a series of Symposium entitled ‘‘Swimming and flying in Nature’’ that we held at Caltech in 1974 with the world leaders attending. During this era of international collaboration, Dr. Allen Chwang won his John Guggenheim Fellowship for 1 year privilege of academic visit at Cambridge University, on leave from Caltech, to work closely with Sir James Lighthill and Sir James Gray. In this period, he worked with the Engineering Science group at home to have developed a series of publications on various exact singular solutions to the Stokes equations that have ever been widely adopted by researchers in all fields for resolving viscous-effects-dominated low-Reynolds-number flow phenomena, with life or lifeless, as found in exterior or interior domains of the micron scale. At the other extreme of highReynolds-number regime, his works with co-authors on submerged or floating body–body interactions attained a generalized Sir G. I. Taylor’s formula for the added mass tensor of the entrained fluid. In another quite unrelated field, his dedicated studies with Prof. George Housner, father of earth-quake engineering at Caltech, on the earth-quake effects on
dam-reservoir systems extended von Karman’s theory by ascertaining the effects due to sloping submerged dam faces, density stratification of reservoir water, and the nonlinear fluid effects on accelerating dams, yielding results henceforth widely used by dam engineers. With his expertise gained in the geo-physical and oceanographical fields, Dr. Chwang’s keen vigilance attracted his attention to the emerging hazards of maritime transportation due to the increasingly stronger water waves in The Victoria Harbor of Hong Kong. This inspired him to apply his earlier work on the so-called porous wall wave-absorber originally for application to reduction of sound waves, thence anew to water waves in harbors. His special knowledge and excellent planning won him a major funding by open invitation from the Hong Kong Government. He led his group to have carried out field and laboratory experiments and theoretical analysis in acquiring a successful innovative design for protecting harbor banks and infrastructures by reducing wave energy to acceptable levels at affordable costs. A 100-meter long prototype porous seawall has been constructed in The Victoria Harbor as a shining token of a highly benevolent task accomplished by the fruitful devotion sparkled from a seed of curiosity of Prof. Chwang’s. In recent year or two, it was exciting to learn of the very farreaching program Allen had been pioneering with a good number of universities in China to pursue joint projects on the coastal and deep ocean physics, engineering and oceanography, oceanic resources, ocean biology, and ocean environment, even if they were only in the inceptive stage. Nonetheless, the high spirit in the encouragement by its marching in steps will be carried on by those following. Needless to go any further, the colorful life and work of Professor Allen T. Chwang briefly highlighted here should amply illustrate that the marvelous labor and efforts dedicated by Prof. Chwang to his professional career will keep disseminating seeds for beautiful new growths in perpetuating his fruitful achievements and his voluminous writings. It was truly a little wonder how he could have taken on so much heavy-duty tasks yet without perhaps overworking himself. Professor Allen Chwang’s professional services are no less colorful. He had been serving on the Editorial Board of the Ocean Engineering journal. In addition, he has been long lauded internationally for his tremendous contributions to our profession and regional governments. As devoted members and Fellows of various scientific and engineering societies, he rendered splendid services as Chair of The Engineering Mechanics Division (EMD) Executive Committee, The EMD Fluids Committee, Turbulence Committee, and on The Advisory Board of ASCE, and as Advisor or Chair of ASME and many other Societies. He always responded with enthusiasm to requests as Advisory or Honorary Professor to numerous universities and as Advisor to The Hong Kong Government, yielding beneficial results deeply appreciated. He was acclaimed for his congenial personality that his presence would be enough to melt conflicts prevailing. To express deep appreciation for his valuable contributions and leadership, a similar eulogy was
ARTICLE IN PRESS Tribute / Ocean Engineering 34 (2007) 2207–2209
dispatched to the thousands of members of the EMD of the American Society of Civil Engineers by its Division Chair. Professor Allen Tse-Yung Chwang lived a remarkable life and endowed a splendid legacy of great significances to academics and far beyond. Among the numerous honors and awards bestowed upon him, he was elected Member of The Hong Kong Academy of Engineering and an Academician of The Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was recognized worldwide as a leading fluid mechanicist, hydrodynamicist, and applied mathematician. The vast scope of his interests led him to profound studies in various fields related to biophysical and geophysical fluid mechanics and applied mathematics. He was so gifted with his creative talents as to develop new mathematical methods for powerful tools needed for cracking challenging physical phenomena under investigation. And it is exceedingly gratifying in fond memory of having him arise to team up with Prof. Dan Valentine and Prof. Michelle Teng in holding our most delightful Vancouver Symposium2 to enrich our precious friendship and life long learning.
2 Editor (RCE): The Theodore Y.-T. Wu Symposium on Engineering Mechanics was held to honor Professor Wu for his 80th birthday on 21–22 June 2004 in Vancouver during the OMAE 2004 Conference annually held by ASME. More than 45 original papers presented during the Symposium were published in a book: Chwang, A.T., Teng, M.H and Valentine, D.T. (2005) ‘‘Advances in Engineering Mechanics: Reflections and Outlooks,’’ World Scientific, Singapore, xvi+730pp.
2209
Finally, I would like to bring forth the charming personal legacy left as a marvelous gift by Allen Tze-Yung Chwang to keep enriching those for emulation. He was most personable, open-hearted, enlightening, full of wit, humorous with entertaining dry jokes that would render any English gentleman burst open to laughs, and laughter oft following his steps. He certainly possessed a severe side for business, to anything desired for improvement. His role-modeling dedications to research-and-teaching and mentoring have advanced all the Institutions he had served to ones of more renown. In seriousness, he exerted leadership in holding our most delightful Vancouver Symposium to enrich our precious friendship and life long learning. He loved his dear wife and family. He also loved his career, profession, and with love, all seem to grow big and great, in his memorial.
Theodore Yaotsu Wu, 28 July 2007 E-mail address: [email protected]