Elaine Oran

Elaine Surick Oran (born April 16, 1946) is an American physical scientist and is considered a world authority on numerical methods for large-scale simulation of physical systems.

Elaine Surick attended school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She worked to start the Center for Reactive Flow and Dynamical Systems, and became its head.

Reactive flow modeling can be applied to solar and stellar astrophysics to study novae, star formation, and cosmology. It can model mixing in Earth's atmosphere, rarefied gas flow during atmospheric reentry, torpedo launches in the Earth's oceans, the spread of fires in cities and forests, and the behavior of car engines and chemical lasers. She is also a senior visiting professor in the Institute for Advanced Study at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and a distinguished visiting professor at Tsinghua University.

Publications

She has published extensively in journals and has written a textbook, Numerical Simulation of Reactive Flow (1987, 2005), which is reported to be the most frequently used textbook on the topic. Fluid Dynamics Prize (APS), 2013, from the American Physical Society (APS) Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Senior Professionals, from the United States Government, for exceptional long-term accomplishments, 2007 Dryden Lectureship in Research Award from American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2002 Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame, 2002 Combustion Institute's Zeldovich Gold Medal, 2000, for "outstanding contributions to the theory of combustion and detonations."

Honorary degrees Doctor of Science, honoris causa (DSc) from the University of Leeds, conferred 15 July 2010 Docteur Honoris Causa from the École Centrale de Lyon, 2006 Docteur Honoris Causa, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées Rouen, conferred on 3 April 2015.

Memberships Elected an international fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2024 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2018 Fellow, The Combustion Institute, 2018 Member, Committee on Human Rights, National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2012 Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), "the highest honor to which any aerospace engineer can aspire." Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), 1990 Society of Women Engineers