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Haverford College 370 Lancaster Ave. Haverford, PA 19041 Electronic mail:  Phone: 610-896-1196 (FAX: 610-896-4904) |
Jerry Gollub is Professor of Physics (and also the John and Barbara Bush Professor in the Natural Sciences) at Haverford. He does experiments on nonlinear and non-equilibrium phenomena, including studies of chaotic mixing phenomena in ordinary and polymeric fluids, granular materials, instabilities, and pattern formation. Previous work includes studies of chaotic dynamics and turbulence, crystal growth instabilities, and nonlinear waves. He has co-authored Chaotic Dynamics: An Introduction, an undergraduate textbook, and he teaches courses for a broad audience such as "Fluids in Nature", "About Time", and "Predictability in Science." He is also affiliated with the Physics Department of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Background
Gollub was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992. He was awarded the Fluid Dynamics Prize of the American Physical Society in 2003, and was the first recipient of the APS Award for Research in an Undergraduate Institution in 1985. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1984-85, won an international "Science for Art" Award in 1994, and earlier held Danforth and Woodrow Wilson Fellowships. Gollub was a Morris Loeb Lecturer in Physics at Harvard University in 1990, a Sigma Xi National Lecturer in 1983-85, and a Visiting Professor at Ecole Normale in 1985, and 1991. He previously served as Provost (Chief Academic Officer) at Haverford. Gollu received his Ph.D. in experimental condensed matter physics at Harvard University in 1971.
Activities
Gollub currently serves as a member of the governing Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and recently served as Chair of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society. He serves on the Editorial Board of Physics of Fluids, and has been a Divisional Associate Editor of Physical Review Letters. He served on the Steering Committee of the National Research Council Math/Science Partnerships Project, and previously was Co-Chair of the NRC Committee on Programs for Advanced High School Science and Mathematics Education. He is an invited columnist for Physics Today, and has been a member of the Edecutive Board of the American Physical Society.
Research Summary
Gollub's research is in the general area of Nonlinear Physics, which is concerned with the mesoscopic and macroscopic behavior of complex systems. Often these systems are described by nonlinear partial differential equations such as the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid motion. His group has conducted experimental work on the following topics over the years: hydrodynamic instabilities and the transition to chaos and turbulence in fluids; the morphology of growing crystals; the dynamics of nonlinear waves, turbulent convection induced by thermal gradients; thin film flows; and spatiotemporal chaos. Current projects include the dynamics of granular materials, which show many interesting nonlinear phenomena, problems related to mixing in fluids, and experiments involving microfluidic flows. Many Haverford students, postdoctoral associates, and visitors have participated in these projects.
Teaching Activities
Courses for a broad audience are a particular interest; examples include "Fluids in Nature", "About Time", and "Predictability in Science". In Fall 2006, I will be enhancing our upper level mechanics course to include continuum mechanics, a subject that deserves a much larger place in the physics curriculum.