Citation | Distinguished for his contributions to four areas of theoretical fluid mechanics: the elliptical instability of rapidly rotating flow subject to tidal and precessional effects, with application to the dynamics of the Earth's liquid core; the establishment of rigorous bounds on statistical quantities like mean rate of dissipation of energy in turbulent flow; an exciting new approach to the problem of subcritical transition to turbulence in pipe flow, based on the discovery of new exact unstable wave-type solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations; and a continuum description of transient granular flow phenomena. In these areas, Kerswell has identified and solved key problems and his work is the focus of much current research activity. |