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PaUl gerMaiN
1920–2009
elected in 1979
“For contributions in research and education leading to the development of
improved supersonic aircraft.”
By arNold MigUs
P aUl gerMaiN, a french scientist of great reputation in the
field of mechanics, died on February 26, 2009, at the age of 88. A
leader in the field of supersonic aerodynamics for many years,
Paul germain also wrote textbooks and taught continuum
mechanics, greatly influencing engineering education in
france and abroad.
Paul germain was born in saint-Malo, france, on august
28, 1920. His father, who was a soldier during World War i,
suffered from the effects of having been gassed, and died when
Paul was only 9 years old. following this premature departure
of his father, Paul germain, the eldest of three children,
developed the sense of responsibilities and commitment that
characterized him all his life, in an atmosphere of big family
solidarity.
Trained as a mathematician at the ecole Normale supérieure
in Paris, he quickly became interested in fluid mechanics. In
1948 he attended the international congress of Mechanics
in london, where, thanks to sydney goldstein, he had the
opportunity to meet a large number of talented colleagues
and was invited to spend some time in the department of
applied Mathematics of the University of Manchester, headed
in 1949 by goldstein and in 1951 by his long-lasting friend
James lighthill. His thesis on the subject of conical supersonic
flows was published by ONERA (The French Aerospace Lab),
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124 MeMorial TriBUTes
where he was a group leader from 1946 until 1952, and was
translated into a National advisory committee for aeronautics
technical memorandum. after becoming a senior lecturer
at the University of Poitiers, he was invited by Professor
William Prager at Brown University for the full academic year
1953–1954 to be a member of the graduate division of applied
mathematics, which, as Paul germain noted, was surprising at
that time for a french scientist by its closeness to engineering.
in october 1954, coming back to france he was appointed
professor in the chair of “rational mechanics” at the University
of lille. at that time, in france at least, rational mechanics
was considered a branch of mathematics, dealing mostly
with the application of the Newtonian theory to rigid body
motions and lagrange’s analytical mechanics. Paul germain
noted in his memoirs that his progress in understanding fluid
mechanics was then mostly due to his close relations with
and good knowledge of the works of Paco lagerstrom, saul
Kaplun, and Julian Cole, his colleagues during his stay at the
california institute of Technology, and later to the academic
year spent by Paco in his laboratory, and also to the two visits
in Paris of Milton Van dyke for one full year each. all of them
theorized on asymptotic singular expansions, which germain
came to use frequently. He also benefited much from the long
stay of W. eckhaus in his laboratory, but above all from his
collaboration with his former student Jean-Pierre guiraud.
in 1958, germain became a professor at the University of
Paris, Pierre et Marie curie, until 1987 and from 1973 to 1985
he was also professor of mechanics at the ecole Polytechnique.
For five years (1962–1967) he left the university to be in charge
of aeronautical research in france as general director of
oNera. after leaving this position he went back to research
and was invited to stanford and Berkeley. He became professor
emeritus at his university in 1987 and from 1988 until 1992
was president of the international Union of Theoretical and
applied Mechanics.
germain was elected a corresponding member of the
french academy of sciences in 1965 and became a full
member in 1970. He was elected “perpetual secretary” of the
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125
PaUl gerMaiN
academy in 1975, with the mission to reform the institution,
which he did until the end of his term in office in 1995. Among
his many works should be mentioned the Rapport sur les
sciences mécaniques et l’avenir industriel de la France (Report on
the mechanical sciences and the industrial future of France), which
had an important influence on the orientation of many people
working in mechanics, on scientists in universities and research
establishments, on engineers and directors of companies, and
on the orientation of long-term programs. one outcome of the
report was creation of the Haut Comité de mécanique (High Level
Committee on Mechanics), of which germain was the founder
and first president. After a lapse of some 15 years, in 1997
the decision was made to join together 20 small scientific and
technical associations into a single society, the association
française de Mécanique (french association of Mechanics).
Paul germain was in the 1950s an expert on the theory of
transonic flows. He obtained many important new results in
the mathematical theory of partial differential equations of
mixed types, with the aim of finding a better understanding of
the aerodynamical properties of transonic flows. One must also
mention his significant contributions to the theory of shocks
with Jean Pierre guiraud, with whom he gave the complete
theory of the shock structure—to any order—a question
previously studied by russian and american scientists but
erroneously after the second order. He is also the first to have
given an extensive analysis of magneto-fluid-dynamic shocks,
taking into account the four main dissipative effects. in his
personal contributions it may be mentioned his study of shock
waves in elastoplasticity and an extension of some of these
results to a two-fluid model of a plasma, showing in particular
the oscillatory behavior that may exist in the structure of
a shock. But his systematic application of the method of
virtual power in various fields of continuum mechanics was
more important. it must be emphasized that this method
gives the possibility, first, to significantly reduce the classical
presentation and to clarify it, for instance, for plates and shells,
and second, to derive with no ambiguity the general equations
of motions for sophisticated materials.
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126 MeMorial TriBUTes
Paul germain was elected a National academy of
engineering foreign associate in 1979 and was recognized by
many academies, including the american academy of arts
and sciences, the Polish academy of science, and the Ussr
(now russian) academy of science.
Paul germain’s name stands extremely high in the literature
of theoretical aerodynamics (with important aeronautical
applications) treated by advanced mathematical methods. His
work as general director of oNera deepened the impact of his
contribution to aeronautics very considerably. His leadership
of an important school of theoretical fluid dynamics in the
University of Paris, Pierre et Marie curie, was outstanding.
He was recognized as the strongest french research worker
in his field. The development of supersonic wing shapes was
particularly influenced by his contributions.
i would like to point out some other facets of his exceptional
personality. Paul germain was quietly a man of religious faith.
He was a leader of his student christian youth organization.
Much later, in 1986, he became a member of the Pontifical
academy of sciences. in 2006 he published Memoirs of a
Christian Scientist, a work that enlightens the route and life of
an outstanding figure. A final story about Paul Germain: he
was quite perturbed during the academic year 1953–1954 by
the statement of a young boy who filled the tank of his car at a
gas station near Brown University who told him one day, “Let
me be straightforward. a professor is somebody who was put
to school when he was five years old and who had not enough
imagination to get out.” At the end of his life he could find at
last the best answer to the young guy’s remark by starting from
the motto he was at the origin in France: “Mechanics? In the
heart of a moving world!” and a professor of mechanics? one
of the best spots to look at and to participate in this moving
world.
Marie-antoinette gardent, his wife, followed him on
december 19 of the same year. They had two children and
eight grandchildren.
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