Record

Authorised form of name	Ellington; Charles Porter (1952 - 2019)
Dates	1952 - 2019
Nationality	American
Place of birth	Maryland, USA
Date of birth	31/12/1952
Date of death	30/07/2019
Occupation	Zoologist
Research field	Animal mechanics
	Biomechanics
	Biology
	Physiology
Activity	Education: Duke University, USA, BA (1973); Downing College, University of Cambridge, UK, MA (1979), PhD (1982) Career: Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Research assistant (1976-1979); University Demonstrator (1979-1984); University lecturer (19984-1997); Reader in animal mechanics (1997 - ); Professor; Emeritus Professor Memberships: Cambridge Philosophical Society; Society for Experimental Biology; Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Membership category	Fellow
Date of election	14/05/1998
Age at election	45
OtherInfo	Charles Ellington was a zoologist who remodelled our understanding of how insects fly and the aerodynamics of hovering. Charles used biomechanics, wind tunnel experiments and other empirical methods to collect data, which are also important for validating computer simulations in other animal flight investigations. Charles spent several years proving that bumblebees and other insects could not possibly fly according to the conventional theories of aerodynamics; they should fall out of the air. He then visualised the airflow over their wings and discovered a novel three-dimensional flow, similar in form to the spiral vortices over Concord wings. In both cases, strong vortices are shed from the leading edges, greatly reducing the pressure above the wings and thus generating extra lift. Concord does this in steady flight, but the insects achieve it by their flapping motion. These spiral leading-edge vortices provide the main unsteady high-lift mechanism that allows insects to fly. Professor Charles Ellington FRS died on 30 July 2019.
Source	Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ellington
Virtual International Authority File	http://viaf.org/viaf/7567979
Code	NA299

Archives associated with this Fellow

RefNo	Title	Date
IM/001286	Ellington, Charles Porter	1998
EC/1998/15	Ellington, Charles Porter: certificate of election to the Royal Society	1997

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