LIFD John Fox Annual Lecture 2021

We are pleased to announce that from 2021 the LIFD Annual Lecture will be sponsored by a University of Leeds alumnus Dr R.V. Ahilan.  This prestigious event will also be re-named the LIFD John Fox Annual Lecture, in honour of John Fox who was a Reader in Fluid Mechanics at the University of Leeds and was at the Department of Civil Engineering for three decades 1960-1990. He authored a popular undergraduate textbook in Fluid Mechanics and a monograph on Unsteady Flows which profoundly influenced a generation of students.

Dr Ahilan said "I was inspired by John from my first year at Leeds. He was always challenging students to excel and had the habit of firing a question to students during his lectures, randomly, just to keep you on your toes as you never knew when a question will be directed to you and you would be called upon to answer thoughtfully. He made you feel as though you were studying the most important subject in the world - of course it is - and made it challenging and fun. I feel a massive sense of gratitude to him for having fired the imagination of a callow 17 year old boy - the fire that still continues to burn. I am so honoured to be able to help remember him through this sponsorship".

Previous LIFD Annual Lectures have attracted over 200 delegates each, videos of both keynote talks are still available online from Prof Howard Stone in 2019 and Prof Alfio Quarteroni in 2020.