Lloyd M. Trefethen

Lloyd MacGregor Trefethen
Born(1919-03-05)March 5, 1919
Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedNovember 6, 2001(2001-11-06) (aged 82)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
EducationWebb Institute (BS, 1940)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS, 1942)
University of Cambridge (PhD, 1950)
Known forsurface tension research,
invention of the heat pipe, study of Coriolis effect on bathtub vortices
SpouseFlorence Newman (m. 1944)
ChildrenLloyd N. Trefethen, Gwyned Trefethen
AwardsASME Fellow
Scientific career
FieldsFluid dynamics, mechanical engineering
WorkplacesNational Science Foundation
Harvard University
Tufts University
Thesis Heat Transfer Properties of Liquid Metals  (1950)

Lloyd MacGregor Trefethen (March 5, 1919 – November 6, 2001) was an American fluid dynamicist. He served as a professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts University for more than 40 years. His work included research on surface tension, independent invention of the heat pipe, and an experimental investigation of the Coriolis effect on draining vortices. He also co-authored a notable paper on card shuffling.

Early life and education

Trefethen was born on March 5, 1919, in Waltham, Massachusetts.[1][2] He graduated from the Webb Institute in 1940, and he received a master’s degree in naval engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942.[2][3]

During World War II, Trefethen first enlisted in the United States Merchant Marine because he knew he could not pass the Navy eye exam. However, after memorizing the eye chart, he passed the exam and became a naval officer.[4] There he met Florence Newman, a Navy codebreaker who later taught in Tufts University’s english department.[4] They married in 1944.[2] Their son, Lloyd N. Trefethen, later became a notable mathematician;[5] they also had an older daughter, the quilter Gwyned Trefethen.[6]

In 1950, Trefethen completed a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge.[2] Although his initial research plan was to study the cooling of turbine blades, his eventual dissertation was Heat Transfer Properties of Liquid Metals. His work sparked an ongoing interest in magnetohydrodynamics at Cambridge.[7]

Career and later life

On returning to the US, Trefethen took a managerial position at the National Science Foundation before joining Harvard University as an assistant professor of engineering in 1954. He moved to Tufts University in 1958, where he became a full professor and chair of the mechanical engineering department. He retired in 1989.[2]

Trefethen died on November 6, 2001 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[8]

Contributions

Trefethen was known for his research on surface tension in liquids, and he was one of the independent inventors of the heat pipe.[2][9][10] In 1963, he made an award-winning educational film, Surface Tension in Fluid Mechanics, as part of a series produced by the National Committee on Fluid Mechanics Films.[2][11][12] Trefethen's fluid mechanics research also included a widely reported investigation into whether the Coriolis force causes a draining vortex in the Southern Hemisphere to rotate opposite to the direction reported by Ascher Shapiro a few years earlier for the Northern Hemisphere.[A][2][13][14]

Beyond fluid dynamics, Trefethen's publications include a paper with his son Lloyd N. Trefethen on the Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model, a mathematical model of shuffling playing cards. In contrast to earlier research suggesting that seven riffles are needed to remove any patterns from an unshuffled deck of cards, Trefethen and Trefethen showed that, in their model of the problem, five riffles are enough.[15][16][B]

Recognition

Trefethen was a Fellow of the ASME. In 1999, a special issue of the Journal of Fluids Engineering was dedicated to him in honor of his 80th birthday.[2]

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ "Massachusetts, Death Index, 1970–2003, entry for Lloyd M. Trefethen and Florence Newman". FamilySearch. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved April 22, 2026. Death certificate number 054171
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Astill, Ken; Nelson, Fred; Humphrey, Joseph A. C. (1999). "Dedication to Lloyd MacGregor Trefethen on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday". Journal of Fluids Engineering. 121 (1): 3. doi:10.1115/1.2822008.
  3. ↑ Kilner, Donald Dee; Trefethen, Lloyd M. (1942). Reversing characteristics of marine propellers (MS thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
  4. 1 2 Gittleman, Sol (November 11, 2013). "The Quiet Men: Sol Gittleman, the university's former provost, remembers Tufts' postwar veteran-professors, the unsung heroes of academia". Tufts Now.
  5. ↑ "Trefethen, Prof. Lloyd Nicholas, (Nick)", Who's Who 2019, Oxford University Press, 2019, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U37988
  6. ↑ "Trefethen", The Annual Review of Girton College, 2012, 2013, p. 97
  7. ↑ Cowley, Martin (2007). "Early years of MHD at Cambridge University Engineering Department". Magnetohydrodynamics. Fluid Mechanics and Its Applications. Vol. 80. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 131–154. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-4833-3_8. ISBN 978-1-4020-4832-6.
  8. ↑ "Lloyd MacGregor Trefethen". The Boston Globe. Legacy.com. November 10, 2001. Retrieved April 24, 2026.
  9. ↑ Patrick J. Brennan; Edward J. Kroliczek (June 1979). Heat Pipe Design Handbook (PDF) (Report). Vol. I. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center. p. 1. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  10. ↑ Midwest Research Institute (January 1975). Heat Pipes (PDF) (Report). NASA CR-2508. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. p. 31. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  11. ↑ "National Committee for Fluid Mechanics Films". Hatsopoulos Microfluids Lab. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved April 23, 2026. Formed in 1961, the NCFMF functions in collaboration with Educational Development Center, Inc. ... The program was completed in 1969.
  12. ↑ Lloyd Trefethen (1969). Film Notes for Surface Tension in Fluid Mechanics (PDF) (Report). National Committee for Fluid Mechanics Films. Education Development Center. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Hydrodynamics: The Bathtub Vortex". Time. September 24, 1965. Retrieved April 23, 2026. Using Shapiro's technique, five persistent investigators at the University of Sydney have now duplicated his experiment
  14. ↑ Shapiro, A. (1962). "Bath-Tub Vortex". Nature. 196: 1080–1081. doi:10.1038/1961080b0.
  15. ↑ Ball, Philip (October 2000). "Shuffling: what's the deal?". Nature. doi:10.1038/news001005-8.
  16. ↑ Uhlig, Robert (October 12, 2000). "Five shuffles enough for random pack of cards, say scientists". The Telegraph.
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