Dr. Shih-I Pai, a retired aeronautical researcher at the University of Maryland who conducted pioneering studies focusing on the drag and lift of ever-faster airplanes, space engines and missiles, died on May 23 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. He was 82 and lived in Beltsville, Md.
The cause was congestive heart failure, his family said.
Dr. Pai helped advance the field of aerodynamics from its infancy to its current level of sophistication. His discoveries 40 years ago about the effects of structure on turbulent flow laid the foundation for him and fellow engineers to move from low-speed aerodynamics through high subsonic and on to supersonic and hypersonic speeds.
As velocities increased dramatically -- be it in aircraft, spacecraft or rockets -- shifting complexities arose in the interaction of electrical, chemical and electromagnetic forces involved. Helping to define them, Dr. Pai published 14 textbooks and some 130 scientific papers about fluid and plasma dynamics.
He was a founder of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, at the university's main campus in College Park, Md.
He was born on Ho Yue Island in Anhui Province in eastern China, and graduated from the National Central University in Nanjing. He received an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1938 and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1940, and then returned to Nanjing to teach.
Dr. Pai's professorial career in the United States began at Cornell University in 1947. He moved to the University of Maryland in 1953 and retired in 1983 as professor emeritus.
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Dr. Pai is survived by his wife of 36 years, Alice Wang Pai; three sons, Stephen M., of Raleigh, N.C., Robert Y., of South Hamilton, Mass., and Lou L., of Houston; a daughter, Sue P. Wang, of Bridgewater, N.J.; two sisters, Shih-Yan Pai, of Beijing, and Shih-Zhan Pai, of Nanjing, and nine grandchildren. His first wife, Chi Yu Feng Pai, died in 1958.
Son of Hsi C Pai and Chia Swe Ling
Immigrated via San Francisco destined for Boston on September 2, 1937
The cause was congestive heart failure, his family said.
Dr. Pai helped advance the field of aerodynamics from its infancy to its current level of sophistication. His discoveries 40 years ago about the effects of structure on turbulent flow laid the foundation for him and fellow engineers to move from low-speed aerodynamics through high subsonic and on to supersonic and hypersonic speeds.
As velocities increased dramatically -- be it in aircraft, spacecraft or rockets -- shifting complexities arose in the interaction of electrical, chemical and electromagnetic forces involved. Helping to define them, Dr. Pai published 14 textbooks and some 130 scientific papers about fluid and plasma dynamics.
He was a founder of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, at the university's main campus in College Park, Md.
He was born on Ho Yue Island in Anhui Province in eastern China, and graduated from the National Central University in Nanjing. He received an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1938 and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1940, and then returned to Nanjing to teach.
Dr. Pai's professorial career in the United States began at Cornell University in 1947. He moved to the University of Maryland in 1953 and retired in 1983 as professor emeritus.
Continue reading the main story
Dr. Pai is survived by his wife of 36 years, Alice Wang Pai; three sons, Stephen M., of Raleigh, N.C., Robert Y., of South Hamilton, Mass., and Lou L., of Houston; a daughter, Sue P. Wang, of Bridgewater, N.J.; two sisters, Shih-Yan Pai, of Beijing, and Shih-Zhan Pai, of Nanjing, and nine grandchildren. His first wife, Chi Yu Feng Pai, died in 1958.
Son of Hsi C Pai and Chia Swe Ling
Immigrated via San Francisco destined for Boston on September 2, 1937
Dr. Shih-I Pai, a retired aeronautical researcher at the University of Maryland who conducted pioneering studies focusing on the drag and lift of ever-faster airplanes, space engines and missiles, died on May 23 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. He was 82 and lived in Beltsville, Md.
The cause was congestive heart failure, his family said.
Dr. Pai helped advance the field of aerodynamics from its infancy to its current level of sophistication. His discoveries 40 years ago about the effects of structure on turbulent flow laid the foundation for him and fellow engineers to move from low-speed aerodynamics through high subsonic and on to supersonic and hypersonic speeds.
As velocities increased dramatically -- be it in aircraft, spacecraft or rockets -- shifting complexities arose in the interaction of electrical, chemical and electromagnetic forces involved. Helping to define them, Dr. Pai published 14 textbooks and some 130 scientific papers about fluid and plasma dynamics.
He was a founder of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, at the university's main campus in College Park, Md.
He was born on Ho Yue Island in Anhui Province in eastern China, and graduated from the National Central University in Nanjing. He received an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1938 and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1940, and then returned to Nanjing to teach.
Dr. Pai's professorial career in the United States began at Cornell University in 1947. He moved to the University of Maryland in 1953 and retired in 1983 as professor emeritus.
Continue reading the main story
Dr. Pai is survived by his wife of 36 years, Alice Wang Pai; three sons, Stephen M., of Raleigh, N.C., Robert Y., of South Hamilton, Mass., and Lou L., of Houston; a daughter, Sue P. Wang, of Bridgewater, N.J.; two sisters, Shih-Yan Pai, of Beijing, and Shih-Zhan Pai, of Nanjing, and nine grandchildren. His first wife, Chi Yu Feng Pai, died in 1958.
Son of Hsi C Pai and Chia Swe Ling
Immigrated via San Francisco destined for Boston on September 2, 1937
The cause was congestive heart failure, his family said.
Dr. Pai helped advance the field of aerodynamics from its infancy to its current level of sophistication. His discoveries 40 years ago about the effects of structure on turbulent flow laid the foundation for him and fellow engineers to move from low-speed aerodynamics through high subsonic and on to supersonic and hypersonic speeds.
As velocities increased dramatically -- be it in aircraft, spacecraft or rockets -- shifting complexities arose in the interaction of electrical, chemical and electromagnetic forces involved. Helping to define them, Dr. Pai published 14 textbooks and some 130 scientific papers about fluid and plasma dynamics.
He was a founder of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, at the university's main campus in College Park, Md.
He was born on Ho Yue Island in Anhui Province in eastern China, and graduated from the National Central University in Nanjing. He received an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1938 and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1940, and then returned to Nanjing to teach.
Dr. Pai's professorial career in the United States began at Cornell University in 1947. He moved to the University of Maryland in 1953 and retired in 1983 as professor emeritus.
Continue reading the main story
Dr. Pai is survived by his wife of 36 years, Alice Wang Pai; three sons, Stephen M., of Raleigh, N.C., Robert Y., of South Hamilton, Mass., and Lou L., of Houston; a daughter, Sue P. Wang, of Bridgewater, N.J.; two sisters, Shih-Yan Pai, of Beijing, and Shih-Zhan Pai, of Nanjing, and nine grandchildren. His first wife, Chi Yu Feng Pai, died in 1958.
Son of Hsi C Pai and Chia Swe Ling
Immigrated via San Francisco destined for Boston on September 2, 1937
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