David John Benney (8 April 1930 – 9 October 2015) was a New Zealand applied mathematician, known for work on the

nonlinear partial differential equation In mathematics and physics, a nonlinear partial differential equation is a partial differential equation with nonlinear system, nonlinear terms. They describe many different physical systems, ranging from gravitation to fluid dynamics, and have b ...

s of

fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...

Education and early life

Born in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand, on 8 April 1930 to Cecil Henry (Matt) Benney and Phyllis Marjorie Jenkins, Benney was educated at Wellington College. He graduated BSc from

Victoria University College Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

in 1950, and MSc from the same institution in 1951. He then went to

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

, from where he graduated BA in the

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a di ...

in 1954. He was at

Canterbury University College The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

for two years as a lecturer, before taking leave of absence in August 1957 to undertake doctoral studies at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), graduating PhD in 1959.

Career and research

Benney joined the mathematics faculty at MIT in 1960. He spent the rest of his career there, as a prolific researcher in fluid dynamics and supervisor of students, becoming

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

. He received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1964.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benney, David 1930 births 2015 deaths New Zealand mathematicians Fluid dynamicists Victoria University of Wellington alumni Academic staff of the University of Canterbury Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty People educated at Wellington College, Wellington Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni