Harlow symposium spans 50 years of technical achievements

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"It's amazing to have people come from so far, I don't know how to say thank you enough," Frank Harlow of Fluid Dynamics (T-3) said Thursday at a symposium held in his honor to celebrate 50 years of continuous service at the Laboratory. "We were a family," Harlow said of his old days of computational fluid dynamics, "and it's incredible to think that we can reconnect those days. I just say thank you a thousand times over."
The symposium at the Los Alamos Research Park at Technical Area 3 began with an introduction from Alan Bishop, Theoretical (T) Division leader who said, "Year by year he collects new sets of students and he has such a passion for the national security mission. Harlow is the prime reason for T-DO's 60th anniversary."
Panelists from a morning round table provided a historical look at computational fluid dynamics in the 50s and included Tony Hirt, Anthony Amsden, Dan Butler, Bart Daly, Dick Gentry, Paul Nakayama and Bill Pracht, who were all part of the development of computational fluid dynamics and the K-epsilon (K-e) turbulence model. Each spoke about their personal experiences working with Harlow in the early days of the field.
"Harlow drug me into international fame," said Nakayama, while Gentry said, "All of the panelist here today were pioneers in their field and they had an effect on the whole world."
Butler said, "Harlow was our mentor and he brought out the best in people, and whether he was the group leader or not he was always the group leader."
Hirt commented, I can remember in the 60s discussing that there was nothing left to be do, because Harlow has done it all … yet we are still here."
Daly said, "Harlow is a very gifted and creative person who made hand plots, which is a beautiful way of expressing the Raleigh Taylor Instability model … amazing.''
Pracht said, "I remember when Harlow would turn in a bunch of ideas calling it a rough draft and it would get accepted [by a peer-reviewed journal] without much revision."
Amsden said, "Harlow was worried that by the time he was in his 40s he would lose his creativity… he never did."
Laboratory Director G. Peter Nanos presented Harlow with a 50-year service award, a certificate of appreciation and other gifts, commenting that it wasn't appropriate to provide Harlow with the traditional Nambe ware, because it would have to be a bathtub.
Nanos also said, "To honor you we honor the whole field of computational fluid dynamics. You are a model for us all, the fact that you've filled the house again is a measure of that."
Harlow has been married to wife Patricia for 51 years; they have four children, Catherine, Carol, Celia and Keith, four grandchildren, four step-grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Harlow has lived on 11th street for 41 years and in Los Alamos for 50 years, he said.
Harlow is the recipient of a Distinguished Performance Award in 1979, and was named a Laboratory Fellow in 1981. He also received a Computational Mechanics Award in 2001 from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers and an R&D 100 Award in 2003.
Harlow is a member of the American Physical Society, division of fluid dynamics and has published more than 150 research papers. Harlow also has published 23 papers in anthropology and paleontology and is an accomplished artist having painted more than 1,000 paintings.
Harlow received his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of Washington in theoretical physics.
Thursday's events also included round tables on the future of computational dynamics and the development of predictive models based on relevant physical mechanisms for materials modeling. In addition, archival graphics illustrating state-of-the-art calculational results obtained in T-3 for the first time anywhere in the world were shown.

-- Kathryn Ostic