Steve L. Karman died on 25 February. He was 64 years old.
Karman attended the Air Force Academy for a year before transferring to Texas A&M to complete his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1991, while working full-time at General Dynamics.
During his career Karman developed technology for solving the Navier-Stokes equations over complex geometries. He also focused on developing methods for generating unstructured grids, and he contributed several innovative and unique algorithms, including viscous-layer insertion, elliptic smoothing incorporating the Winslow equations, virtual control volumes, geometry parameterization, and most recently, the currently only viable means for curving meshes for high-order simulations. Karman was an active member of AIAA, writing numerous papers, organizing and chairing sessions at conferences, serving on technical committees (Fluid Dynamics TC, Meshing, Visualization and Computational Environments TC, and Applied Aerodynamics TC), and actively participating in workshops.
