March 20, 2003
On February 12th, 2003, Professor Vinod Modi passed away after a year-long illness with cancer. Prof. Modi was an internationally renowned expert in fluid mechanics, biomechanics, and space dynamics. Educated in both India (Bachelors) and the U.S. (Masters ¨C Washington, Ph.D.- Purdue) as a mechanical engineer, his productive career spanned over 40 years at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada).
Prof. Modi's work on aircraft aerodynamics is implemented on next generation high performance aircraft. His fluid mechanics work is not limited to the skies, the drag reduction methods he pioneered are applicable to tractor-trailers, trucks, and buses. His contributions in industrial fluid dynamics allow buildings and towers to be taller than conventionally possible, bridges to break records in span lengths, and offshore structures to operate well in difficult weather. Examples of his industrial fluid dynamics work are implemented at Haneda and Narita Airport in Japan. Prof. Modi's fundamental hydrodynamic studies of blood flow in the human heart coupled with his mechanical engineering insight added enormously to the technology of prosthetic heart valves. The impact this has alone in improving the quality of life for others is immeasurable.
A charter member of ISOPE, he strongly supported it on many fronts. His time and energy was devoted to work on committees. He was a charter member of the ISOPE¡¯s Technical Program Committee and International Hydrodynamics Committee for many years. He delivered the plenary address at the 7th ISOPE Conference, Hawaii, 1997). In 1996, he was awarded the Best Paper Award, at the 6th ISOPE Conference, Los Angeles. Prof. Modi gave generously to the ISOPE Undergraduate Student Scholarship Fund and encouraged his own students to be part of ISOPE. Over his career, Prof. Modi produced over 500 publications of which 15 were either ISOPE journal or conference articles. His last paper appears in June 2003 issue of IJOPE.
Prof. Modi appreciated that ISOPE was a truly international organization with enough scope to encompass many cross-disciplinary areas of fluids and oceans research. From scientists working in very fundamental fields to technologists and engineers doing applied work, they all found value in ISOPE. It was that kind of a dynamic environment that Prof. Modi found stimulating.