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Philip Drazin

1934 – 2002

British mathematician

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About Philip Drazin

Lived 1934 – 2002 (aged 67). Philip Drazin was a mathematician and university teacher.

Philip Gerald Drazin (25 May 1934 – 10 January 2002) was a British mathematician and a leading international expert in fluid dynamics.

Biography Drazin was born in East London to Isaac Drazin, who was of Russian-Jewish origin and ran a shop in Hampstead, and Leah Wexler. Drazin went to boarding school at St Christopher School, Letchworth during the Blitz. His older brother Michael is also a mathematician.

Drazin completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge under G. I. Taylor in 1958. He was awarded the Smith's Prize in 1957. After leaving Cambridge, he spent two years at MIT before moving to the University of Bristol, where he stayed and became a Professor until retiring in 1999. After retiring, he lectured at the University of Oxford and the University of Bath until his death in 2002.

Drazin worked on hydrodynamic stability and the transition to turbulence. His 1974 paper On a model of instability of a slowly-varying flow introduced the concept of a global mode solution to a system of partial differential equations such as the Navier-Stokes equations. He also worked on solitons.

In 1998 he was awarded the Symons Gold Medal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Drazin died at his home in Bristol in 2002.

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Important facts

Birth century
Education
University of Cambridge
Employers
University of Bristol
Also known as
Philip Gerald Drazin

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Philip Drazin's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Philip Drazin?

British mathematician

When was Philip Drazin born?

Philip Drazin was born on 25 May 1934.

When did Philip Drazin die?

Philip Drazin died on 10 January 2002.

What was Philip Drazin's occupation?

Philip Drazin was a mathematician and university teacher.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Philip Drazin

· Wikidata: Q19872737

· DBpedia: Philip Drazin

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Philip Drazin. https://biography.guide/philip-drazin/

MLA: "Philip Drazin." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/philip-drazin/.

Chicago: "Philip Drazin." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/philip-drazin/.

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