Ernst R. G. Eckert

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Ernst R.G. Eckert (1904-2004)

Ernst R. G. Eckert (ERG) (1904-2004) was a scientist who worked in the area of heat and mass transfer. Eckert was born in Prague and graduated from the German Institute of Technology in Prague in 1927, received his doctorate in 1931, and married Josefine Binder in the same year. Beginning in 1938, he worked as a rocket and jet engine scientist at the Aeronautical Research Institute in Braunschweig, Germany.

One of the engineering problems that Dr. Eckert was involved with while in Germany was in the development of the V1 and V2 rockets. The engineering of the time did not have an accurate model for the frictional heating of a three-dimensional body in flight; the V2 rocket was designed with the explosives in the nose where the friction was the greatest for the rocket at high speeds. In initial tests, the rocket would detonate in flight due to viscous frictional heating.

After World War II, Eckert was invited to the USA in 1945, under Operation Paperclip. He obtained his U.S. citizenship in 1950 while working at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, performing research on jet propulsion. In 1951, Eckert joined the University of Minnesota in the department of mechanical engineering. In the late 1960's, Eckert became one of the first Regents Professors at the U of MN, the highest recognition the University gives to a member of its faculty. Eckert published more than 550 scientific papers and books. He is noted for developing and advancing the film cooling technique for aeronautical engines.

The dimensionless Eckert number is named in his honor. He had many students, including Regents Professor R. J. Goldstein. Professor Eckert died on July 8th, 2004, two months before his 100th birthday.