Turbulence—an Odyssey

Michael Eckert, born 1949, studied physics at the Technical University in Munich with a diploma in 1976. He received a doctorate in theoretical physics at the University in Bayreuth in 1979. From 1989-1995 he was editor for physics, mathematics and informatics at the Bayerischer Schulbuchverlag. Most of his career, however, was spent at the Research Institute of the Deutsches Museum as a historian of physics. Since his retirement in 2014, he has remained associated with this institute as Senior Researcher.Eckert's major research projects covered the history of solid state physics, an edition of the scientific correspondence of Arnold Sommerfeld, the history of fluid dynamics, and biographies of Arnold Sommerfeld and Ludwig Prandtl. He has published several books in German and English.

• Pipe Flow.- Channel Flow.- Drag.- Wind and Weather.- The Boundary Layer Concept.- The Mixing Length.- The Statistical Theory of Turbulence.- The Onset of Turbulence.

“This volume represents an exhaustive study of turbulence in its historical and conceptual underpinnings. Its roots have grown since the early modern era in a cluster of fields, from hydraulics to meteorology. … The reader is guided throughout the history of turbulence in an effective way. The bibliography is rich, and all materials are discussed in an extensive manner. Certainly, this is an important contribution in the history of science, mathematics and engineering.” (Silvia De Bianchi, Mathematical Reviews, January, 2023)