What is the irregular and disordered nature of fluid mixing, called turbulence, and why should people want to know more about it? Robert Ecke, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, will discuss “The Turbulent World: How Nature Mixes Things Up” at a Frontiers in Science Public Lecture Series, beginning Monday (May 21).
Ecke will discuss real-world applications of fluid turbulence, including airplane flight, car fuel economy, urban air pollution, and predicting future global climate evolution. He will explain what turbulence is, why it matters, and how scientific studies of turbulence are important to understanding and solving many problems of the 21st century.
The Frontiers of Science lecture series is sponsored by the Fellows of the Laboratory. Each talk is free to the public and scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Monday’s talk is in the Duane Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School.
Ecke also will speak on May 22 in the James A. Little Theater at the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe, May 30 at the Nick Salazar Center for the Arts at Northern New Mexico College in Española, and May 31 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
“Fluid turbulence is everywhere we look, from the billowing clouds of a New Mexico thunderstorm and the uncomfortable jostling of airplane travel to the drag on cars and the
dispersion of smoke on a windy day. Despite its importance in many aspects of our lives, turbulence is still a challenging problem,” said Ecke.
Ecke has worked at the Laboratory since 1983 and has a bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in physics from the University of Washington. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the Fellows Prize for Outstanding Scientific Research in 1991.
The Frontiers in Science lectures are intended to increase local public awareness of the diversity of science and engineering research being conducted by the Laboratory.
For more information on the Frontiers in Science series, contact Linda Anderman of the Community Programs Office at 655-9196 or anderman@lanl.gov.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.