NAUMANN

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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15.7.1905 Plauen/D - 2.3.1983 Aachen/D

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Alexander Naumann graduated as a mathematician from the University of Leipzig in 1930 and there submitted a PhD thesis in 1931. Its topic was on the origin of turbulent pipe flow, which he conducted in collaboration with Ludwig Schiller (1882-1961). He continued there until 1936 when moving to Aachen University as a collaborator of Carl Wieselsberger (1887-1941) at its aerodynamic institute. Naumann submitted a habilitation thesis in 1941.

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Naumann's researches on the development of supersonic flight became pioneering. These works were banned in Germany after the end of World War II, however. Naumann thus moved in 1946 to Emmendingen, as the head of a German research group to develop supersonic wind tunnels for France. He continued lecturing in Aachen, was appointed associate professor in 1949 and returned to his Aerodynamic Institute in 1951 to rebuild the facilities of Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt DVL. In 1955 he took over its direction and was appointed in 1963 professor of fluid mechanics at Aachen University. He thus headed over the DVL Institute from 1963 to 1966. Until his retirement in 1973, Naumann collaborated also with the medical university faculty. A project on Artificial organs of the Sonderforschungsbereich was successfully initiated which led to the foundation of the Helmholtz Institute of Biomedical Technology at RWTH Aachen. Naumann was a Member of the Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development AGARD headed then by Theodor von Karman (1881-1963) the founder of the Aachen aerodynamic institute; the Board of Directors of the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, the Scientific Association for Aviation, and the Rheinländisch-Westfälische Academy of Sciences. He was decorated Ehrensenator and awarded an honorary doctorate Dr.med. of RWTH Aachen in 1979.

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_{Krause, E. (1997). Naumann, Alexander. Neue Deutsche Biographie 18: 765-766.}

_{Duncker&Humblot: Berlin.}

_{Naumann, A. (1931). Experimentelle Untersuchung über die Entstehung der turbulenten Rohrströmung. Forschung auf dem Gebiete des Ingenieurwesens 2(3): 85-98.}

_{Naumann, A. (1954). Aerodynamische Gesichtspunkte der Windkanalentwicklung. Jahrbuch}

_{Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Luftfahrt: 235-249.}

_{Naumann, A. (1964). Moderne Entwicklungen bei Windkanälen. Umschau 64(20): 613-618. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1953). Naumann, Georg Alexander. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 7a: 395; 8: 1951. Akademie Verlag: Berlin, with bibliography. http://www.aia.rwth-aachen.de/history.html Prof. Dr. A. Naumann. P}