Ronald Probstein

Probstein was a leading fluid-mechanics expert and long-time MIT professor whose research advanced hypersonic and rarefied gas flows, spacecraft design, desalination and the cleanup of contaminated soils; he was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and author of the text Physicochemical Hydrodynamics. Born and raised in New York City, he studied at night at NYU while working for the mathematician Richard Courant. He appears on a subject roster of Jews in continuum mechanics; standard biographies note his New York family but do not detail his religion.