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LESTER LEES
1 920-1 986
BY FRANK E. MARBLE
LESTER LEES, authority on the subjects of supersonic and
hypersonic aerodynamics, a highly respected teacher, and one
who played a pivotal technological role in the creation of the
United States ballistic missile defense system, diec! November 10,
1986, from complications attending Parkinson's disease. His
cleath came only two days after the celebration of his sixty-sixth
birthday. Lester Lees was a member of the faculty at the Califor-
nia Institute of Technologyfrom 1953 until the time of his death.
Lester thoroughly enjoyocl his life; he enjoyed his family; he
enjoyed his work, his students, good food and wine, and a good
argument! He pursued everything with zest, enthusiasm, and
humor. He had an unusual ability to identify the key elements of
new technological issues and possessed an immense reservoir of
energy with which to pursue them. This uncompromising drive
lecl him to grow from his aeronautical background to make vital
contributions to the fielcis of transportation, energy production
and management, and environmental protection.
Born in New York City on November 8, 1920, Lester Lees
entered the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in September
1933 and was admitted as a freshman to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) three years later, at the age of
fifteen. He emerged in 1941 with a B.S. and an M.S. in aeronau-
tical engineering, having pursued adclitional advanced work in
mathematics and physics. An appointment as research assistant
159
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160
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
during his last year at MIT gave him his initial experience with
research and culminated in his master's thesis, "The Influence
of Static Pressure Gradients upon the Turbulent Boundary
Layer." That he should pursue such a difficult and highly
competitive area of research at this stage of his scientific devel-
opment proved an accurate indicator for the course of his
career!
.
With the United States entry into the war imminent in 1941,
Lester Lees joined the U.S. Air Force's Air Materiel Command
at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, as an aeronautical engineer.
While at MIT, Lester met Constance L. Morton, a student at
Simmons College, School of Library Science. Theywere married
in Dayton on August 30, 1941. Connie, a strong, intelligent, and
gracious person, became and remained a principal factor in
Lester's career.
It was at Wright Field that Lester met Theodore von Karman,
whose personal magnetism drew Lester to the California Insti-
tute of Technology in the fall of 1942. There he served as an
instructor in mathematics and a research fellow in aeronautics;
collaborated with van Karman on the design of a supersonic
wind tunnel; and continued, closely with the (listinguishec!
theoretician H. S. Tsien, research in supersonic gasclynamics.
As the war graclually enveloped most scientific personnel,
Lester was taken into the Army Air Corps Enlisted Reserve and
joined the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Langley was an
active and stimulating research center where many of Lester's
young colleagues were also destined to join the leaders of the
postwar aeronautical research establishment.
During this period, the original theory of laminar instability
was transformed from highly suspect to firm reality by the classic
experiments of G. B. Schubauer. Almost simultaneously, Lester
Lees, together with Professor C. C. Lin, extended this theory to
the new regime of supersonic flows, beginning a field of investi-
gation that to the present time has remained active for superson-
ic and hypersonic flows.
As the war ended, Lester accepted an assistant professorship
in aeronautical engineering at Princeton and for the next five
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LESTER LEES
161
years directed its supersonic and hypersonic research. It is
important to note that events of this period interrupter! Lester's
orderly progress through the doctorate and, given his stature in
aeronautical research, he found no compelling reason to divert
himself toward that end. The few indignities he suffered as a
consequence received appropriate responses.
The Princeton colleague who exerted the deepest and most
lasting influence was Luigi Crocco, a splendid, creative scientist
and a gentleman of great personal warmth. Together they
clevelope<1 a vitally important theory of dissipative gas flows, the
spirit of which would play an essential role in Lester's future.
Toward the end ofthe Princeton period, David Grayson Leeswas
born. David grew to share the intellectual attributes of his
mother and father ant! maintained a warm and understanding
relationship with Lester throughout his life.
In 1953 the hypersonic wind tunnel in Caltech's Guggenheim
Laboratorywas nearing completion, and that summer Lesterwas
persuaded by Clark Millikan to return to Caltech as a member of
the faculty and to assume responsibility for directing hypersonic
research. The next seventeen years saw Lester develop, through
his energy and personal commitment, a sequence of outstand-
ing research accomplishments and a following of intensely
devoted students. These students were an integral part of Lest-
er's and Connie's life; essentially they were his extended family.
They were always welcome at the Lees home, where they wouIci
be well fed by Connie; their parties were legendary!
At Caltech Lester continued his important work on hyperson-
ic viscous flows initiated at Princeton in collaboration with his
student Ronalcl Probstein, particularly the leading-edge shock-
boundary layer interaction problem. He also expanded his
activities into the fielcI of rarified gas dynamics related to very
high-altitude flight. At this time the hypersonic technology
community began to realize the advantages of a blunt-nosed
body in reducing heat transfer during atmospheric reentry.
Lester's work on chemically reacting turbulent boundary layers
placed him in a unique position to deal with the nose ablation
issue. As consultant to the Space Technology Laboratories (later
Thompson-Ramo-Woolridge (TRW)), he guided the military
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
research and development of the successful reentry body design.
This activity had, of course, a strong influence on the direction
of his academic research program with regard to both hyperson-
ic flow about blunt slender bodies ant} the stability of laminar
boundary layers in very high-speed flow. Itwas during this period
of his career that one of his students, Dr. Toshi Kubota, became
his close faculty associate and lifelong collaborator, sharing with
Lester the duties of teaching and supervising students in hyper-
sonic research.
In the early 1960s the technology issues centered on ballistic
missile defense and, in particular, on the question of cliscrimina-
tion between heavy bodies and decoys as they entered the earth's
atmosphere. Through an exhaustive effort, carried out in collar
oration with Dr. Leslie Hromas of TRW, Lees showed that the
characteristics of the trail left behind! as the objects reentered the
atmosphere differed significantly between heavy bodies and
clecoys. It transpired that the bodies' viscous boundary layer had
a significant effect upon the wake structure, and the joint work
with Luigi Crocco, mentioner! earlier, became relevant. Again,
the fundamental aspects of this problem became the motivation
for his academic program.
Lester Lees always took an active interest in government and
politics, and in the late 1960s it seemed natural that he should
become involvecl with environmental issues. When President
Harold Brown formed Caltech's Environmental QualityLabora-
tory in 1971, he persuader] Lester to become its first director.
Under his stimulating guidance, this became a flourishing and
prolific organization, and because Lester was not one to mini-
mize the unpopular facts concerning sources of pollution, it also
produced its share of controversy. Time, however, has proven
Lester correct, and as a consequence, his influence on environ-
mental legislation has been very significant. This time also
marked the creation of Caltech's Department of Environmental
Engineering, and Lester became professor of environmental
engineering and aeronautics. He remained in the position of
director ofthe laboratoryuntil 1974when, feeling the laboratory
to be firmly established, he stepped down from that position.
Although he remained intensely active in environmental, ener-
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LESTER LEES
163
gy, and transportation problems, he gradually returned to aero-
nautical and aerospace research and moved his of lice back to the
Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories. He resumed teaching and
research supervision in aeronautics, but his declining health
gradually undermined the energy that characterized his techno-
logical activity.
Lester Lees was a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronau-
tics and Astronautics and was elected to the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences in 1964 and the National Academy of
Engineering in ~ 971. He was a member of the National Aeronau-
tics and Space Administration (NASA) Lunar and Planetary
Missions Advisory Board. He served for several years on the
President's Scientific Advisory Board as a member of the Space
Vehicle Panel, the Space Technology Panel, and the combined
Space Science and Space Technology panels.
Lester Lees was devoted to the practice and teaching of sound
cutting-edge technology rooted in scientific fundamentals. In
this he must be considered one of the most successful of his
generation.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
hypersonic research
