Leslie Stephen George Kovasznay

Leslie S. G. Kovasznay (14 April 1918, Budapest – 17 April 1980) was a Hungarian-American engineer, known as one of the world's leading experts in turbulent flow research.

Kovasznay earned in 1943 his doctorate in engineering at the Royal Hungarian Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Előd Abody-Anderlik in the faculty of mechanical engineering. After working from 1941 to 1946 at that Faculty, he spent a year at the Cavendish Laboratory working with Sir Geoffrey Taylor. From 1947 to 1978 Kovasznay was a faculty member of the Aeronautics Department at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). In December, he resigned from JHU to become a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston, where he remained in his professorship until his sudden death in 1980. and, with Chih-Ming Ho, on experimental studies of interactions between sound and turbulence.

He travelled widely, lectured at many universities and conferences, and made extended visits in France and Japan. He was the author or coauthor of more than 80 papers. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1962.

Kovasznay married in 1944. Upon his death, he was survived by his widow and their daughter.

Selected publications