Stanford Solomon Penner (5 July 1921 – 15 July 2016) also known as Sol Penner, was a German-American scientist and engineer, a major figure in combustion physics, especially in rocket engines, and a founder of the Engineering program at

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. He obtained his PhD in 1946 from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

under

Farrington Daniels Farrington Daniels (March 8, 1889 – June 23, 1972) was an American physical chemist who is considered one of the pioneers of the modern direct use of solar energy. Biography Daniels was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 8, 1889. Daniel ...

and

Theodore von Kármán Theodore von Kármán ( , May 11, 1881May 6, 1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who worked in aeronautics and astronautics. He was responsible for crucial advances in aerodynamics characterizing ...

Biography

Stanford S. Penner was born on July 5, 1921, in

Unna Unna () is a city of around 59,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the seat of the Unna (district), Unna district. The newly refurbished Unna station has trains to all major cities in North Rhine Westphalia including Dortmund, Köln H ...

, Germany, a small town in the

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

region of Germany. He moved to the U.S. when he was 15 and he earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry at

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

in New York in 1942. He obtained his PhD from the

under the supervision of

and

, specializing in the development of rocket engines, and became a researcher at

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

after finishing his doctorate. After working as a research engineer at

from 1946 to 1950, he became the Professor of Jet Propulsion at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

from 1950 to 1964. At 1964, he came to

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing ...

as a founding chair of the

's first engineering department. In 1972, he created the Center for Energy Research at

as a place for researchers from across campus and around the world to come together to pursue critical, interdisciplinary energy research. Penner died at his home in

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...

on July 15, 2015, at the age of 95.

Research

Penner collaborated with

in the later years of von Kármán life for 15 years. The Kármán–Penner flux fraction, first introduced by Von Kármán and Penner in 1954, is the fraction of mass flux of a particular chemical species (it is used sometimes in place of species mass fraction). He has received numerous professional honors, including election to the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Astronautics; he has also been awarded the Distinguished Associate Award from the US Department of Energy and the Founders Award from the National Academy of Engineering. Penner also founded two scientific journals: the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer in 1960, serving as chief editor for over 30 years and in 1975 he founded Energy, An International Journal and of the (classified) Journal of Defense Research.

Publications

Penner has published around 320 journals in his lifetime and authored many books and monographs.

Books

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References

External links