Adm. Hal Gehman, chairman of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board, has announced the appointment of Dr. Sheila E.
Widnall of MIT as the newest member of the board. Dr. Widnall,
former Secretary of the Air Force, is an expert in aircraft
turbulence and spiraling airflows. She will begin meeting with the
board in Houston on Thursday.
The other members of the investigation board this week have been
visiting NASA facilities where Space Shuttle components are tested
and prepared for flight. They were scheduled to return to Houston
Saturday.
Dr. Widnall received her B.Sc. (1960), M.S. (1961), and Sc.D.
(1964) in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. She was appointed Abby Rockefeller Mauze
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1986 and Institute
Professor in 1998. She served as Associate Provost, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology from 1992-1993 and as Secretary of the Air
Force from 1993-1997. Professor Widnall stepped down from her
position as Secretary of the Air Force on October 31, 1997 to
return to her faculty position at MIT.
Since returning to MIT, she has been active in the Lean
Aerospace Initiative with special emphasis on the space and policy
focus teams.
Her research activities in fluid dynamics have
included the following: boundary layer stability, unsteady
hydrodynamic loads on fully wetted and supercavitating hydrofoils
of finite span, unsteady lifting-surface theory, unsteady air
forces on oscillating cylinders in subsonic and supersonic flow,
unsteady leading-edge vortex separation from slender delta wings,
tip-vortex aerodynamics, helicopter noise, aerodynamics of
high-speed ground transportation vehicles, vortex stability,
aircraft-wake studies, turbulence and transition. Teaching
activities have included undergraduate dynamics and aerodynamics,
graduate level aerodynamics of wings and bodies, aeroelasticity,
acoustics and aerodynamic noise, and aerospace vehicle
vibration.
Bona Fides Galore:
Dr. Widnall is Vice President of the National Academy of
Engineering and a member of the Executive Committee of the National
Research Council of the National Academies. She is a trustee of the
Sloan Foundation and the Institute for Defense Analysis. She is a
director of GenCorp, Inc. She has been a trustee of the Carnegie
Corporation and Vice Chair of its Board, a consultant to the
Macarthur Foundation, a Director of the Aerospace Corporation,
Draper Laboratories, ANSER Corp., Chemical Fabrics Incorporated and
a trustee of the Boston Museum of Science, and a member of the
Council, Smithsonian Institution of Washington. She was a member of
the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government. She
is a past president of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science and the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics.
She received the Lawrence Sperry Achievement Award
in 1972 from the American Institute of Aeronautics; the Outstanding
Achievement Award in 1975, from the Society of Women Engineers: the
Washburn Award in 1987, from the Boston Museum of Science; the ASME
Applied Mechanics Award in 1996; the 1993 National Academy of
Engineering Distinguished Service Award; in 1994 honorary Doctor of
Science degree from Princeton University; the 1994 Barnard College
Medal of Distinction; the 1995 W. Stuart Symington Award from the
Air Force Association; the 1995 Boston USO Military Service Award;
the 1995 Maxwell A. Kriendler Memorial Award from the Air Force
Association; the 1996 Durand Lectureship for Public Service from
the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; in 1996 she
was inducted into the Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame; was
named 1996 New Englander of the Year by the New England Council;
and received the 1998 Goddard Award from the National Space Club;
the Hartinger Award from the NDIA in 1999; the Reed Aeronautics
Award from the AIAA in 2000; and the Sprit of St. Louis Medal from
ASME in 2001. She is a Fellow of the APS; AAAS; AIAA; the Royal
Aeronautical Society and a member of the International Academy of
Astronautics; the National Academy of Engineering; and a fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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