SCHÖNFELD

NETHERLANDS (see also List of Individuals)

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5.6.1918 Vlissingen/NL - 18.3.2005 Ede/NL

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Johan Christoph Schönfeld graduated from Delft Technical University as a physicist in 1943 and then stayed at the Den Haag Patent Office. He joined the Central Research Division of the Rijkswaterstaat in 1948, and in 1951 submitted a PhD thesis on tides and wave hydraulics. A hydraulic engineer with Centrale Studiedienst until 1959 he was associated with the physics department of the Dutch Water Ministry until 1963. For the next three years, Schönfeld joined Compagnie Nationale du Rhône in France, and the Scientific Commission of the Dutch Institute for Sea Investigations. Schönfeld was appointed in 1966 associate professor of fluid mechanics at TU Delft and there took over in 1969 as a full professor.

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Schönfeld was one of the Dutch experts in shallow water computations, among Jo Johannes Dronkers (1910-1973), Johannes Theodoor Thijsse (1893-1984), Gerrit Abraham (1929-) and Jan Jakob Leendertse (1925-). From 1950 to 1990, Delft Hydraulics together with SOGREAH in Grenoble, France, and the Danish Hydraulic Institute DHI led these developments in Europe, until the first two drastically reduced their staff and thus passed leadership to others. Schönfeld also published significant contributions to diffusive and advective transport of matter in surface waters and may be considered a pioneer in computational hydraulics of the Netherlands. He initiated and guided the development of instrumentation for field measurements relating to salt content, water velocities and wave characteristics. Schönfeld was strongly involved in density currents as occur in estuaries and thus are of concern for his country.

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_{Anonymous (1966). Dr.ir. J.C. Schönfeld. Jaarboek 1966: 185. Technische Hogeschool: Delft. P}

_{Dronkers, J.J., Schönfeld, J.C. (1959). Tidal computations in shallow water. Communication 1.}

_{Rijkswaterstaat: Den Haag.}

_{Schijf, J.B., Schönfeld, J.C. (1953). Theoretical considerations on the motion of salt and fresh water. 5 IAHR Congress Minneapolis: 321-333.}

_{Schönfeld, J.C. (1951). Propagation of tides and similar waves. Staatsdruckerij: s'Gravenhage. Schönfeld, J.C. (1955). Discharge of very long weirs. 6 IAHR Congress Den Haag 4(D22): 1-8.}

_{Schönfeld, J.C. (1966). Tussen waterbouw - en wiskunde. Waltman: Delft.}

_{Veen, J. van, Dronkers, J.J., Notenboom, W., Schönfeld, J.C. (1953). The penetration of sea water into Dutch river mouths and estuaries. 18 Navigation Congress Rome S2(C3): 185-223. Volker, F., Schönfeld, J.C. (1949). Le régime d'une rivière sous l'effet de débits variables. 17 Navigation Congress Lisbon S1(Q3): 59-78.}