Obituary of Raymond Jay Emrich

Raymond Jay Emrich died on September 7, 2005 at the age of 87 as emeritus professor of physics at Lehigh University. He retired from the Physics Department after teaching for 41 years and serving as department head for 10 years. A 1938 graduate of Princeton University, he did doctoral degree work at the University of Cambridge, building a cyclotron in 1938-39 under the direction of Sir Lawrence Bragg, but returned to the U.S. in 1939 because of World War II. During the war, he did anti-tank ballistics research at Princeton and received a Presidential Citation for his work. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1946 and joined the physics faculty of Lehigh University. He taught and did research altogether for a year and a half in Germany, a year in Novosibirsk, Siberia as a Fulbright Senior Fellow, and six months in Minsk, USSR, and then taught at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey for a year.

Emrich’s research at Lehigh was in the field of the physics of fluids. Following on his wartime and doctoral research at Princeton University, he established investigations into high-speed flows accompanying shock waves near solid boundaries. He pioneered the techniques of using sub-micron tracer particles in the measurement of fluid flows at distances as small as a micron from a wall. He recognized the competing influence of Brownian motion on the tracer particles, and this led him to new investigations into the anisotropy of fluctuations in the presence of flow non-uniformity. He produced thirteen Ph.D. students. During his sabbatical year in Novosibirsk, he investigated the explosive vaporization of liquid carbon dioxide and continued these studies after his return to Lehigh. This line of research gave him opportunities to develop and perfect new techniques for flow visualization, imaging of vortices as in hurricanes, high-speed timing, and short pulse light sources!

Ray was generous in serving Lehigh University and the scientific community at large. He attracted the annual meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society to Lehigh and served as program chair in three consecutive decadal meeting years, 1957, 1967 and 1977. He served the Division as its secretary and chair. He also played an active role in the organization of the biennial international symposia on shock tubes. He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1953, and a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Sciences in 1980. He was on the Committee of Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute from 1960 until his death, researching and composing the research profiles of potential awardees for annual Franklin Institute medals.

During Emrich’s years as Department head, many faculty members were hired, changing the character of the Physics Department. A faculty comprised of returning wartime physicists gave way to young physicists who had been educated during the peacetime blossoming of American scientific research. He took interest in younger faculty and never ceased to share his experiences and insights. Ray’s teaching, both in class and in graduate degree mentorship, was characterized by his insistence on precise measurement, clear explanation and concise writing. He practiced these rules to the letter himself. Ray had an ability to make us think about what could be deemed intractable, complex problems in a simple, but logical way. Under his exacting façade, he had ample humour and a sense of scepticism about many fashionable but passing ideas. He was a sympathetic person, always willing to help.

Ray Emrich’s life was a personification of the Lehigh Physics Department. We take great satisfaction in having consumed his dry humour, having been instructed and helped by him, and having shared some part of our lives together as colleagues and friends. In his long association with Lehigh he brought lasting visibility and distinction to the University, and we celebrate his being.