Colleagues,
I received word this morning that our friend and colleague, Prof. John Smith, died peacefully at home on March 28, surrounded by friends and family. His funeral will take place at the West Berkshire Crematorium, Thatcham, on Monday 27th April at 1:45 p.m.
John was a mentor and friend to many in the mixing community, and to his colleagues at Delft University of Technology, University of Swansea, and University of Surrey.
He made very significant contributions to the gas-liquid mixing literature, with important and quite different chapters in both Harnby, Edwards and Nienow, and in the Handbook of Industrial Mixing. These cornerstone chapters remain the major reference points for design of gas-liquid mixing equipment. His paper with van’t Riet on the trailing vortices associated with Rushton turbines was a landmark contribution listed in the 21 Most Significant Contributions to Mixing Literature in 2011. While at the University of Swansea, he was involved with an early edition of the classic series of chemical engineering texts by Coulson and Richardson (first edition, 1971).
John loved classical music and hiking (walking) in the hills of southern England, and at many NAMF conferences over the years. His beloved collection of old technical books yielded a number of images of ancient mixing equipment, which he shared with the community over the years. He had warm and loving relationships with two wives, and is survived by a son and a daughter, Ralph Smith and Andrea Dimbleby (andrea.dimbleby@talktalk.net). He had been suffering from cancer for a long time, but kept up correspondence with a number of colleagues and was always responsive to questions about his earlier work.
Please feel free to copy the text of this message and pass it along to other colleagues and friends.
I think we would all raise a toast to recognize John’s impact on our community and on our lives, both professionally and personally.
Warm regards to all of you.
Suzanne
Suzanne Kresta, P.Eng., F.E.C.,
Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, University of Alberta
