Irvin Glassman, 96, died on Saturday, December 14 at his home in Princeton, N.J. A Baltimore native born in 1923, Irvin Glassman was the Robert H. Goddard Professor (Emeritus) of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. He retired from Princeton in 1999 after 49 years on the faculty.
He was considered one of the world’s leading authorities on combustion as applied to problems in energy production, pollution, propulsion, and fire safety. In 1972, Prof. Glassman, as he preferred to be called, founded Princeton University’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. He was editor and founder of the journal Combustion Science and Technology and published more than 250 articles as well as two major books, including Combustion, considered the leading book in his field. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1996, received an honorary Doctorate of Science from Princeton University in 2009, and was awarded the Daniel Guggenheim Medal in 2018, which honors innovators who make notable achievements to aeronautics.
Prof. Glassman was most proud of his legacy as a teacher. His course on combustion engines was voted the most popular in a poll of Princeton University students. More than twenty of his graduate students awarded Ph.D.s are faculty members at major universities. Through his interest in others, kindness, and positive outlook, he became not only a teacher, but a life-long mentor to many of his academic “children.”
Prof. Glassman served during World War II in the U.S. Army as a research scientist and was honorably discharged in 1945. He received his Bachelors of Engineering (1943) and Doctorate of Engineering (1950) from Johns Hopkins University.
A loving husband, father, and grandfather, Prof. Glassman is survived by his wife of 68 years, Beverly Wolfe Glassman, and his three daughters, Shari Powell, Diane Gienger, and Barbara Glassman; their husbands, Warren Powell, Edwin Gienger, and Arthur Rubin; and six grandchildren, Eddie (Nicole Kennedy) and Megan Gienger, Elyse and Daniel Powell, and Maya and Noah Rubin. His children and grandchildren will remember with love his wisdom, kindness, positive encouragement, and humility.
Prof. Glassman was a true testament to the transformative power of education. Securing a scholarship to Johns Hopkins enabled him to leave his mother’s grocery store, obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, and eventually become a professor at Princeton University. To honor this legacy, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Irvin Glassman Fund at the Trustees of Princeton University to support the next generation of Princeton University engineering students (Princeton University, Alumni and Donor Records, P.O. Box 5357, Princeton, NJ 08543-5357).
Funeral services were held Sunday, December 15, with burial at Floral Park Cemetery in South Brunswick.
A Letter of Condolence
The sky of the combustion community dims as one of our brightest stars, Irvin Glassman, has passed away. On behalf of Chinese Section of the Combustion Institute, we express our sincere condolence to the loved ones of Prof. Glassman. We feel their grief and we stand together with them.
Last year, Prof. Glassman was awarded the 2018 Daniel Guggenheim Medal in recognition of his profound impact on the application of combustion science and engineering to propulsion research and the successful development of propulsion systems. Prof. Glassman, together with Prof. Frank E. Marble, were the only two awardees in history who contributed to fundamental combustion research and combustion science.
According to Prof. Ben T. Zinn of Georgia Institute of Technology, “Prof. Glassman is a legendary combustion expert whose writings and contributions to the understanding of fundamental combustion processes has enabled engineers and scientists to improve the performance of propulsion and power generation systems, while minimizing their adverse environmental effects.” Prof. Chung K. Law of Princeton University commented, “if future historians were to write the impact of chemical propulsion and fundamental combustion on humanity in the second half of the 20th century, Professor Glassman would be the singular person who represents the coming of age of the discipline, particularly the robustness of combustion chemistry.”
While many have recognized Prof. Glassman’s contributions to research, we would like to add that he is also a mentor of many Chinese scholars who had never met him in person. Back in the days when the concept of combustion had not yet been recognized as a systematic discipline of science in China, Prof. Glassman’s classic textbook Combustion was a bible that had enlightened and illuminated the very few lucky ones who are now leading the combustion research in China. Today, Prof. Glassman’s book is still amongst the most popular reference books of combustion in Chinese universities.
There was a Chinese proverb saying: “man dies, either lighter than a feather or heavier than a mountain.” Prof. Glassman is the latter, as he left us with so much legacy. Today, we are indeed sad to loss Prof. Glassman, but feel a little consoled knowing that he will always be remembered.
Chinese Section of the Combustion Institute
December 15, 2019
Our condolences to Bev and the Glassman family from the Santoro family on the passing of Irv. During the three years I spent as a Research Staff Member in Irv’s research group he became my mentor and friend. I have so many great memories of my time talking with Irv about wide variety of topics including our families. We were both graced with having daughters for children. He was so proud of his family that it was clearly his favorite topic. Another favorite topic was his graduate students whose accomplishments were a source of great pride. He was also pleased to see a number of his students selected to follow an academic career. Many of these individuals have made important contributions to combustion science as well as educating another generation of combustion researchers. They represent a substantial legacy that Irv leaves for future generations. I don’t think that so many students of Irv’s becoming professors was an accident. I am convinced it was due to the kind of adviser Irv was that encouraged his students to select an academic career. Irv was very enthusiastic about his research and teaching and that made people working with him enthusiastic as well. Irv’s interactions with his graduate students, from my experience was to build their confidence in themselves. He encouraged them to solve problems and to explain results based on their own ideas before coming to see him. He also made sure that they got recognition for their work by making presentations at technical conferences and contractor meetings with the sponsors of their research. On the occasions that he did present the work of a student, his first sentence of the presentation was to give credit to the students responsible for the results to be presented. He encouraged his students to ask questions at technical meetings to develop their skills to contribute to the discussion of the various presentations. Over the three year period of my appointment, I saw positive changes in his graduate students with respect to their maturity and confidence. It took a few years for me to realize that I wanted an academic career and that Irv had played major role in that decision. I also am happy that I had several opportunities to thank him for how much he helped me and my family in my career. I wrote this post because I wanted to thank Irv’s family for sharing him with us for so many years.
Robert Santoro December 16
My deepest sympathies to Irv’s family and colleagues. I had the privilege of a childhood with the Glassman family and will always look fondly on the memories. I spent many days roaming the halls of the EQUAD, witnessing greatness in the field whilst laughing at combustion humor and watching students come and go. Irv was always a constant in his family but also leaves a legacy of academic rigor that not only impacted his direct field but inspired others to achieve in the sciences as a whole.
I remember Professor Glassman as a gentle giant among his fellow academics. He never needed to show how smart he was and he always encouraged his students to learn from their mistakes. A laugh or a joke were never far from his lips. He was universally revered by his graduate students. He envisioned a flow reactor where the pure chemistry could be separated from the chaos of a turbulent flame. It started with a heat exchanger made from broken toilets and he turned it into a machine so sophisticated that we joked that with a few more modifications we would pour the fuel in one end and a dissertation would come out the other. The countless data points produced by this and his other experiments significantly increased our understanding of combustion and what was needed to reduce the concomitant pollution. There are people alive and healthy today that wouldn’t be without the work he led and inspired.
May the Omnipresent comfort the Glassman, Powell, Gienger, and Rubin families among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Dr. Bob Butler, Ph.D. Student, 2001