Stephen H. Davis

Stephen Howard Davis (September 7, 1939 – November 12, 2021) was an American applied mathematician working in the fields of fluid mechanics and materials science. Davis served as McCormick School Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University. He has been listed as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in the field of engineering.

Davis was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1994 for contributions to the mathematics of hydrodynamic stability theory and interfacial phenomena. An ISI Highly Cited Researcher, Davis has authored four books and more than 200 academic publications, and given numerous special lectures.

Career Davis received his B.E.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1960 and the M.S. and PhD in Mathematics in 1962 and 1964, respectively. He was a research mathematician at the RAND Corporation from 1964 to 1966, a lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Imperial College London for 1966–1968, and assistant, associate, and full professor of Mechanics at the Johns Hopkins University from 1968–1978.

Research Davis' research interests included theoretical fluid mechanics, hydrodynamic stability and interfacial phenomena, materials science, thin films and crystal growth, and asymptotic and variational methods. laid out how long-wave asymptotic theory would be the basis of research worldwide in the analysis of thin-films, droplet spreading, and micro/nano-science flows. Further, he was the first to use long-wave theories to describe the destabilization of deposited solid films and their evolution to quantum dots through coarsening via the derivation of convective Cahn-Hilliard equations.

Honors and awards 2017, Member, Academia Europaea 2004, Member, National Academy of Sciences 2001, G. I. Taylor Medal, Society of Engineering Science (SES) 1994, Humboldt Research Award for Senior Research Scientists, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation