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Final
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A N T O N I K. O P P E N H E I M
1915–2008
Elected in 1978
“For contributions to the elucidation of the gas dynamics of explosions
and to the analysis of surface radiant-heat exchange.”
BY ROBERT F. SAWYER
A NTONI KAZIMIERZ OPPENHEIM, an expert on
combustion, explosions, and radiation-heat transfer died in his
home in Kensington, California, on January 12, 2008. Known
for his life-long passion for research, he opted for hospice care
in his home over spending his final days in a hospital, no doubt
so he could continue to work, in his bed with a laptop, on the
second edition of his monograph Dynamics of Combustion
Systems (Springer, 2006). A Professor Emeritus of mechanical
engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, at the time
of his death, Tony had a life and career that were formed by the
turbulent history of his time.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, on August 11, 1915, Tony was
home-schooled in French until the age of nine, when he began
attending local schools and learning Polish. This, and his later
unusual introduction to English, no doubt contributed to his
charming, difficult-to-identify accent. After graduating as
valedictorian of his high school in 1933, he began the study of
aeronautical engineering at the Warsaw Institute of Technology.
The Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 interrupted his studies,
and he fled across Europe through Romania, Greece, France,
Spain, and Portugal. In June 1940, he arrived in England and
joined the Polish Army in exile in Scotland, where he taught
himself English.
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192 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
In 1942, he took leave of the Polish Army to study at the City
and Guilds College in London, where in 1945 he completed the
requirements for a degree from the Warsaw Institute of
Technology and earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from
the University of London and a Diploma from the Imperial
College. During this time, he worked, under the supervision of
Sir Owen Saunders, successfully researching ways to improve
the performance of piston engines for RAF fighter planes, thus
giving them a performance edge over German fighters.
Other work included gas-turbine combustion and the study
of the combustion dynamics of the German V-1 pulse-jet engine.
As a recognized authority on the V-1, he went to Germany after
the war as a British intelligence officer to interview the engineers
who had developed the V-1 engine. His interest in and
subsequent study of detonation and combustion phenomena
resulted from these early studies and experiences.
After three years as a lecturer in mechanical engineering at
City and Guilds College, in 1948 Tony joined Stanford University
as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Two years
later, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley,
Mechanical Engineering Department as an assistant professor;
he became associate professor in 1954 and full professor in
1958.
Among his many contributions was the development and
application of network analysis to the quantification of
radiation-heat transfer. This analog of electrical-network
analysis is still widely taught. His studies of the mechanisms
of detonations included both experiments and theory. Because
detonations occur so rapidly, the mechanism of their
development and propagation was largely conjecture. Tony
recorded the transit of detonations, first using wall tracings in
detonation tubes and then photographic recordings with
picosecond, laser-pulse illumination. His interest in the
dynamics of explosions and reactive systems led to collaboration
in the 1960s with Rem Soloukhin of the Soviet Union and Numa
Manson of France to establish the International Colloquium on
the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems, which will
hold its 22nd biennial meeting in Minsk in 2009—a testament
to Tony’s vision.
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193
ANTONI K. OPPENHEIM
His active study of combustion phenomena, over six decades,
included vector-polar methods to describe gas dynamic-front
interactions, blast-wave theory, turbulent combustion, plasma-
jet ignition, turbulent jet plumes, laser ignition, and distributed
combustion in engines (the foundation for homogeneous-charge
compression-ignition engines). Following his official retirement
from the University of California, Berkeley, he focused his
considerable energy and enthusiasm on developing his ideas
for improving the performance of internal combustion
engines.
Tony received honorary degrees from the University of
Poitiers, University of London, and Warsaw University of
Technology. The University of California awarded him the
Berkeley Citation, its highest honor, which is bestowed on
individuals who have exceeded the standards in their field. He
received the Dionizy Smolenski Medal of the Polish Academy
of Sciences for outstanding contributions toward advances in
the knowledge of combustion and the Alfred C. Egerton Medal
of the Combustion Institute for distinguished, continuing, and
encouraging contributions to the field of combustion. He was
a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a
foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a fellow of
the Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the
National Academy of Engineering.
Tony’s sensitivity to the insecurity of his graduate students
is captured by his words of encouragement to a self-doubting
student, “You were born to a Ph.D.,” he said. His ebullient spirit,
still strong at the age of 92, extended to his colleagues, his
students, and even to his cat, which he described as “a truly
magnificent animal.”
His wife remembers that “we were married for over 62 years.
When he proposed to me in London in 1944 he commented that
he could not promise where we would live nor what our
circumstances would be, but whatever happened our life would
not be boring! How true that was and how rewarding.”
Tony is survived by his wife, Lavinia (Min), of Kensington,
California; their daughter, Terry Ann Cort, of El Cerrito,
California; and two grandchildren, Jessica DiBiase and
Zachary Cort.
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