John Ffowcs Williams
British engineer-scientist (1935–2020)
title: "John Ffowcs Williams" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1935-births", "2020-deaths", "academics-of-imperial-college-london", "masters-of-emmanuel-college,-cambridge", "fellows-of-the-royal-academy-of-engineering", "fellows-of-the-institute-of-physics", "fellows-of-the-royal-aeronautical-society", "place-of-birth-missing", "british-fluid-dynamicists", "professors-of-engineering-(cambridge)", "alumni-of-the-university-of-southampton", "20th-century-welsh-engineers", "21st-century-welsh-engineers"] description: "British engineer-scientist (1935–2020)" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ffowcs_Williams" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary British engineer-scientist (1935–2020) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox academic"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | John Ffowcs Williams |
| honorific_suffix | |
| birth_name | Shôn Eirwen Ffowcs Williams |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Wales |
| death_date | |
| death_place | North Wales, Wales |
| spouse | |
| awards | Sir Frank Whittle Medal (2002) |
| education | {{Plainlist |
| alma_mater | University of Southampton |
| thesis_title | On Noise from Convected Turbulence |
| thesis_year | 1961 |
| doctoral_advisor | Elfyn Richards |
| influences | |
| discipline | Engineering |
| sub_discipline | {{Plainlist |
| workplaces | {{Plainlist |
| * Imperial College, London<ref name | "whoswho"/ |
| doctoral_students | {{Plainlist |
| * David Crighton<ref name | mathgene |
| * Ann Dowling{{fact | date |
| * Steve Furber<ref name | mathgene/ |
| main_interests | {{Plainlist |
| notable_ideas | Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy |
| influenced | |
| :: |
| name = John Ffowcs Williams | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Shôn Eirwen Ffowcs Williams | birth_date = | birth_place = Wales | death_date = | death_place = North Wales, Wales | spouse = | awards = Sir Frank Whittle Medal (2002) | education = {{Plainlist|
- Great Ayton Friends' School
- Derby Technical College}} | alma_mater = University of Southampton | thesis_title = On Noise from Convected Turbulence | thesis_year = 1961 | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = Elfyn Richards | academic_advisors = | influences = | discipline = Engineering | sub_discipline = {{Plainlist |
- Acoustics
- Fluid mechanics}} | workplaces = {{Plainlist |
- Imperial College, London
- University of Cambridge
- Emmanuel College, Cambridge}} | doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
- David Crighton
- Ann Dowling
- Steve Furber | notable_students = | main_interests = {{Plainlist |
- Aeroacoustics
- Fluid dynamics}} | notable_works = | notable_ideas = Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy | influenced = | signature = | signature_alt = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Emmanuel_College,_St_Andrew's_Street,_Cambridge.jpg" caption="[[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]]"] ::
John "Shôn" Eirwyn Ffowcs Williams (25 May 1935 – 12 December 2020) was Emeritus Rank Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a former Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1996–2002). He may be best known for his contributions to aeroacoustics, in particular for his work on Concorde. Together with one of his students, David Hawkings, he introduced the far-field integration method in computational aeroacoustics based on Lighthill's acoustic analogy, known as the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy.
Ffowcs was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 1995 for contributions to the theory of jet noise, and other aspects of aeroacoustics and hydrodynamics.
Education and early life
Born in Wales on 25 May 1935, Ffowcs Williams was educated at the Great Ayton Friends' School and Derby Technical College. He served an engineering apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce before going to the University of Southampton, he always maintained a strong commitment to bring academic research to bear on industrial problems. He was awarded Bachelor of Science degree and a PhD from the University of Southampton in 1961 for research supervised by Elfyn Richards.
Career and research
He cofounded Topexpress Ltd, a consultancy company in Cambridge specialising in engineering science, was executive consultant to Rolls-Royce and a director of VSEL plc. For 25 years he led the division in which the University of Cambridge's Fluid Mechanics, Aeronautics, Thermodynamics, and Turbomachinery work is concentrated.
He was admitted to his Professorial Fellowship at Emmanuel in 1973; he was the longest-serving professor in the University when he retired from his chair in 2002. He taught engineering for the College but, before becoming Master his main college contribution was serving on the Governing Body and its committees. He was the first holder of the Rank Chair of engineering established in 1972 in the field of acoustics, coming to Cambridge from Imperial College London, where he held the Rolls-Royce Chair in theoretical acoustics. His speciality was noise and vibration caused by unsteady flow. His main achievement was to persuade very good research students to tackle important but interesting problems which ranged from the aeroacoustics of supersonic flight, to the quietening of underwater platforms. His work helped make anti-sound useful for noise control and for stabilising unstable aeromechanical systems.
His doctoral students include David Crighton, Steve Furber, and Ann Dowling.
Awards and honours
Ffowcs Williams was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of Southampton and Master of Arts and Doctor of Science (ScD) degrees from the University of Cambridge.
- He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 1988
- In 1984 he was awarded the Rayleigh Medal by the UK Institute of Acoustics.
- In 1989 he was awarded the Médaille Étrangère by the French Acoustic Society (SFA).
- In 1995 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering
- For his contributions to the foundations and applications of Aeroacoustics, which have enabled dramatic reductions in the noise of aircraft and submarines he was awarded the Sir Frank Whittle Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002.
- He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS)
- He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
- He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FinstP)
Personal life
Williams married Anne Mason in 1959. He died on 12 December 2020.
Notes
References
References
- {{MathGenealogy
- Crighton, David George. (1969). "Wave motion and vibration induced by turbulent flow". University of London.
- (1961). "Noise from Convected Turbulence". [[Journal of the Acoustical Society of America]].
- Furber, Stephen Byram. (1979). "Is the Weis-Fogh principle exploitable in turbomachines?". University of Cambridge.
- (1979). "Is the Weis-Fogh principle exploitable in turbomachinery?". [[Journal of Fluid Mechanics]].
- "List of Fellows".
- (1995). "Biomechanics of snoring". Endeavour.
- "Emmanuel College Fellows".
- Hawkings, David Leonard. (1968). "Some forced wave problems in fluid mechanics". University of London.
- (1969). "Sound Generation by Turbulence and Surfaces in Arbitrary Motion". [[Royal Society]].
- "Ffowcs Williams, Prof. John Eirwyn".
- "Prix et médailles de la SFA, Médaille Étrangère".
- (17 May 2002). "Through the sound barrier without a boom?". The Royal Academy of Engineering.
- "Tribute page for Shôn FFOWCS WILLIAMS".
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