Theodore von Kármán

Born on 11 May 1881 in Budapest, Theodore von Kármán was a physicist and aerospace engineer whose research was pivotal for mid 20th century advances in aviation and spaceflight. He received an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Royal Polytechnic University in Budapest in 1902 and a PhD in mechanics from the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 1908. In 1930 he left Germany to become director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech. His lab group worked with the US Army on rocket-powered aircraft during World War II. The lab would later become NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 1944 von Kármán took charge of the Army Air Force’s Scientific Advisory Group; he would later chair NATO’s Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development. His research spanned aeronautics , fluid dynamics , supersonic flight, and astronautics. In 1963 he received the first National Medal of Science, from President Kennedy. That same year he died just shy of his 82nd birthday. (Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Date in History: 11 May 1881