Y. H. Kuo in Ithaca
I. Tani
(University of Tokyo)
It was early in February, 1952, when I first met Dr. Yung-Huai Kuo in the United States. He was Professor at the Graduate School of Aeronautical Engineering (headed by Professor W. R. Sears), Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. I was about to make a half year stay at Cornell University as Visiting Fellow, supported financially by the Japanese government. The closeness in age, and also in field of interest, appears to have naturally led me to make friends with him. Dr. Kuo was sincere in all respects, and very thoughtful for my temporarily solitary life separated from family. I cannot forget the warm entertainment Dr. and Mrs. Kuo gave me occasionally at their home on 218 Utica Street, Ithaca. It was largely through the kind influence of Dr. Kuo that I could make an acquaintance with a number of Chinese scientists, in particular, Dr. H. S. Tsien, Dr. H. S. Tan, Dr. K. L. Chung, Dr. H. K. Cheng, Dr. T. F. Sun and others. At that time, Dr. Kuo was interested in calculating the correction for the skin friction on a flat plate of finite length as a higher-order boundary-layer effecte. It was enjoyable for me to discuss the problem with him from an unbiased standpoint. He was happy to find that some of the differential equations encountered in the course of his analysis had been those already integrated for my wartime studies; thus affording a little saving in time and labor. The result was published in his noteworthy paper in 1953, which antedated the upsurge of interest in higher-order boundary layer theory. The discussion at that time has also been fructified in my paper published in 1953. I still cherish the pleasant and lasting memory of the interactive discussions with Dr. Kuo. Since then, however, I could see him only once, on the occasion he passed through Tokyo with his family on the way back to his country toward the end of September, 1956.
