In Memoriam: Professor Essam E. Khalil —A Tribute to An Outstanding Educator and Researcher

Abstract

Professor Essam E. KhalilProfessor Essam E. Khalil On Wednesday, September 7, 2022, we were deeply saddened to hear that Professor Essam E. Khalil passed away at the age of 74. Professor Khalil was born on July 12, 1948, in Scotland, United Kingdom, and through his extensive career, he became one of the most respected educators/researchers in Egypt in the field of mechanical engineering. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in July 1971 and December 1973, respectively, from the Department of Mechanical Power Engineering of Cairo University. He then joined the Imperial College of Science and Technology where he received his Ph.D. in February 1977 under the supervision of Professor James Hunter Whitelaw. His dissertation is titled “Flow, Combustion and Heat Transfer in Axisymmetric Furnaces.” After finishing his Ph.D., Professor Khalil obtained a postdoctoral fellowship with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, UK. After his fellowship, he returned to Egypt as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Power Engineering at Cairo University. He was promoted to Associate Professor and Professor in 1982 and 1988, respectively. During his academic career, Professor Khalil supervised many master’s and Ph.D. students in the areas of heat transfer, turbulent combustion, air distribution in buildings, and sustainability. Several of his past Ph.D. students became professors at different universities. Professor Khalil published over 950 papers in journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and books. Some of his publications are listed in Refs [1–5]. His 1983 paper with Professors D. Brian Spalding and James H. Whitelaw titled “The Calculation of Local Flow Properties in Two-Dimensional Furnaces” was his most cited paper [6].