BECKER

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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14.2.1929 Darmstadt/D - 14.11.1984 Darmstadt/D

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Ernst Becker made his engineering studies at the University of Göttingen, where he also received the PhD title in 1954. Becker then was a collaborator of Aerodynamischer Versuchsanstalt AVA and in the late 1950s moved to Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt DVL where he collaborated with Henry Görtler (1909-1987), and acted as deputy head from 1960. Becker was appointed professor of mechanics at Darmstadt University in 1962 and specialized in gas dynamics. He was associated with Gesellschaft für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik GAMM of which he was president in 1975.

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Becker was the author of a number of outstanding textbooks and reports. These include the successful text on gas dynamics in which the Germans have contributed particular works that were initiated around 1930 by Adolf Busemann (1901-1986). Another noteworthy contribution of Becker was his 1980 chapter on simple non-Newtonian fluid flows. Most of these results were summarized in the 1982 textbook on technical fluid mechanics, in which the theoretical presentation was explained with examples from practice. Becker also presented the two more theoretical texts on mechanics of continua in 1975, and the thermodynamics book in 1985. According to his own words, he was always interested in finding solutions by a winning sport driven by the longing for understanding physical processes. The enormous successes with these textbooks and his students reflect his outstanding capabilities of passing knowledge to others. A great man and teacher thus had passed away much too early … A commemoration colloquium was held in 1985 at the Darmstadt Technical University to honor Becker.

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_{Anonymous (1985). Ernst Becker Gedächtnis-Kolloquium. Wissenschaft und Technik 28.}

_{Technische Universität: Darmstadt. P}

_{Becker, E. (1954). Verformung einer Wasseroberfläche durch eine punktförmige Störung. Schiffstechnik 2: 178-188.}

_{Becker, E. (1968). Gas dynamics. Academic Press: New York.}

_{Becker, E., Bürger, W. (1975). Kontinuumsmechanik. Teubner: Stuttgart.}

_{Becker, E. (1975). Manifestation consacrée au centenaire de Ludwig Prandtl. Zeitschrift für Flugwissenschaften 23(5): 150. P}

_{Becker, E. (1980). Simple non-Newtonian fluid flows. Advances in applied mechanics 20: 177- 226, C.-S. Yih, ed. Academic Press: New York.}

_{Becker, E. (1982). Technische Strömungslehre. Teubner: Stuttgart. Becker, E. (1985). Thermodynamik. Teubner: Stuttgart.}