FINK

FINK 27.10. 1827 Lauterbach/D 03.04. 1897 Sing Sing (Ossining) NY/USA Albert Fink was born in Eastern Hessen, Germany. He was educated in his native country, moving around 1850 then to the USA, where he entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. After his service as resident engineer at Parkersburg WV, he went to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad as chief engineer and superintendent. He designed and built, among others, the Louisville Bridge across the Ohio River, the Nashville Bridge over the Cumberland, or the Decatur Bridge over Tennessee River. He was elected president of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE in 1879, thus leading an important American engineering organisation. Despite Fink’s career was mainly devoted to railroad and bridge engineering, he was also involved in hydraulic problems, particularly as regards the design of piers and abutments of the bridges. The bridges mentioned span partly over wide rivers, so that they had to be resistant particularly during flood conditions. During the Civil War, he was also active in repairing bridges damaged during hostile actions. In 1875, the railroad and steamship association of the South was founded, uniting 25 companies; it corresponded to the first larger association of this kind, and is stated to have been one of the most successful. To a large extent, it was the idea of Fink to combine naval and railroad transportation for the ease of users. He was from 1877 to 1889 general director of a railroad company, which had formed from former forty individual companies. Despite this and other successes, and a high salary of then 25,000 US$, he resigned in favor of a consulting position in New York City Anonymous (1897). Albert Fink. Engineering News 37(April 8): 215. P Anonymous (1899). Albert Fink. Trans. ASCE 41: 626-638. Anonymous (1900). Fink, Albert. The National cyclopaedia of American biography 9: 489. White: New York. P Anonymous (1927). Albert Fink: A biographical memoir of the father of railway economics and statistics in the United States. Bureau of Railway Economics: Washington DC. Anonymous (1963). Fink, Albert. Who was who in America 1607-1896: 180. Marquis: Chicago. Faust, A.B. (1909). The German element in the United States. Houghton Mifflin: Boston MA. Lindenthal, D. (1899). Albert Fink. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Technischen Verbandes 4(3): 141-157. P https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fink P

FISCHER 16.05. 1937 Lakehurst NJ/USA 22.05. 1983 Bridgeport CA/USA Hugo Breed Fischer was educated at the California Institute of Technology, Berkeley CA, with the BS degree in 1958, the MS degree in 1963, and the PhD degree in 1966. He was then at his Alma Mater assistant professor of civil engineering until 1970, associate professor until 1974, and professor until his premature death at age 46 following a sail plane accident. Fischer was recipient of the 1966 Straub Award, the ASCE 1969 Croes Medal, the ASCE 1971 Hilgard Prize, and the 1974 ASCE Huber Prize. He was Member ASCE, of the International Association of Hydraulic Research IAHR, and the American Geophysical Union AGU. Fischer was a notable researcher in environmental engineering. His PhD thesis was supported by the US Geological Survey, enabling him to test his dispersion theories in real rivers. He was later cited ‘For his research on fundamentals of dispersion in natural systems and the application of these results to practical problems’. His further research interests included mixing processes, dispersion in estuaries, disposal of sewage effluents and waste heat, and effects of stratification. His 1979 book written jointly with four colleagues was a notable addition to environmental engineering. The Hugo B. Fischer Award, made to honor Fischer’s pioneering work on San Francisco Bay-Delta water quality modeling, was endowed in 1995. It is presented annually for (1) development, refinement or innovative application of a computer model, and (2) furtherance of the effective use of models in planning or regulatory functions. Anonymous (1971). Hugo B. Fischer. Civil Engineering 41(10): 55. P Anonymous (1974). Hugo B. Fischer. Civil Engineering 44(10): 95. P Anonymous (1981). Hugo B. Fischer. Who’s who in America 4: 1088. Marquis: Chicago. Fischer, H.B. (1967). The mechanics of dispersion in natural streams. Journal of the Hydraulics Division ASCE 93(HY6): 187-216; 94(HY6): 1548-1559; 95(HY4): 1458-1461. Fischer, H.B. (1973). Longitudinal dispersion and turbulent mixing in open channel flow. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 5: 59-78. Fischer, H.B., List, E.J., Koh, R.C.Y., Imberger, J., Brooks, N.A. (1979). Mixing in inland and coastal waters. Academic Press: New York. Fischer, H.B., ed. (1981). Transport models for inland and coastal waters. Academic Press: New York. https://www.cwemf.org/FischerAwardWinners.htm P