Professor Hsien Kei Cheng graduated from Chiao-Tung University in Shanghai (now known as Shanghai Jiao Tong University) in 1947, and began graduate studies in 1949 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He was recommended for admission to the new School of Aeronautics at Cornell by the legendary H.-S. Tsien, whom he met while Tsien was visiting Chiao-Tung University for a series of lectures on the subject of high-speed flow.

At Cornell, he worked with William R. Sears and Nicholas Rott—two of the most respected theoretical aerodynamicists in the country at that time. After graduation, H.-K. worked at Bell Aircraft, before returning to Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in 1959. In 1963, he spent a year at Stanford as a Visiting Lecturer before coming to USC in 1965 to join the newly-formed Department of Aerospace Engineering under the guidance of John Laufer.

HK was elected Fellow of AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and Fellow of APS (American Physical Society) early in his career. In 1988, he was elected to the prestigious NAE (National Academy of Engineering). The citation was: "For original contributions to hypersonic flow theory and to the aerodynamics of three dimensional wings in subsonic and transonic flows." He retired in 1993 to become Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He continued to research and to publish from his office at USC.

Early on, H.-K. worked on a variety of problems in high speed aerodynamics. Describing the gas motions within an intense explosion, and the determination of the flow-field about a yawed cone at very high speed (hypersonic speed) are just two examples.

The most important of these early works was his improved estimation of heat transfer to the nose of a blunt body, such as a space capsule, re-entering the atmosphere. The estimate of heat transfer is critical for the design of a body shape and size that will successfully return to the earth's surface without being destroyed by excessive heating. H.-K.'s more accurate estimate of heating rates, published in 1961, came along at just the right time to aid the design of the Apollo mission to the moon!

In the 1980's, H.-K.'s interests shifted to the description of wave motions within the earth's atmosphere and oceans, and to the flapping propulsion of fish (and birds) in nature. He was particularly interested in describing the swimming propulsion and efficiency of the large lunate-tailed fishes such as the tuna.

H.-K.'s most recent focus was to describe the underwater sound field produced by an airplane flying overhead at supersonic speeds. He is responsible for the discovery that—in the presence of ocean surface waves—the acoustic wave field of the airplane does not decay substantially under the surface. The acoustic field may indeed be of sufficient strength to disturb whales and dolphins.

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