Professor
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Telephone: 514-848-2424 ext. 3158
E-mail: vatistas@encs.concordia.ca
Dr. George Vatistas may be a professor of mechanical engineering, but his latest research into the world of vortices has the physics world abuzz. He is the first person to physically validate a 125-year-old theory from Nobel Prize winner J.J. Thomson on the stability of vortex rings. Researchers always believed the theory was mathematically sound, but nobody had been able to produce it in the real world… until now.
This physical validation allows scientists to take physics into directions they were unable to before, from the physics of the very small (quantum) to the physics of enormously large (galaxies). This theory is used in the study of anything in the universe that rotates, from water to stars to electrons to acoustics in sound waves. The real-world applications are limitless and can be applied towards areas like the forecasting of tornado development before it appears on radars to the design of airplane wings. In other contexts companies will be able to build more efficient and quieter components in machinery such as turbines.
This groundbreaking research will be featured in the May issue of Physical Review Letters, the world's foremost physics letters journal.
Read the PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS [pdf]
Page Title: Featured Researcher: Dr. George Vatistas - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Page URL:http://mediarelations.concordia.ca/mediaresources/featuredresearcher/archiv...ferID=cbc
Date Printed: Tue February 9, 2010
