Professor Paul Steen passed away unexpectedly in Vermont on September 4, 2020.
Paul H. Steen, the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Engineering, joined the School of Chemical Engineering at Cornell as an assistant professor in 1982, after completing a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins and post-doctoral training at Stanford. He holds undergraduate degrees in Engineering and English Literature from Brown University. At Cornell, Professor Steen was a valued colleague, teacher, and advisor across departments and graduate fields in the College of Engineering and an internationally recognized scholar in fluid mechanics.
In research, Professor Steen brought applied mathematics together with experiments to provide deep insights into complex processes involving fluids. He focused on questions of stability, often working with fluids at interfaces, as in droplets, bubbles, and thin films. His experiments were visually striking and his theories elegant and insightful.
Professor Steen was a skilled and successful teacher and advisor. The alumni of his lab populate top academic and industrial positions around the globe. Notably, he always welcomed and cultivated undergraduate students through engagement in his research, often mentoring them from their freshman through their senior year.
We extend our deepest condolences to Paul’s family, including his wife Kyra Stephanoff, Visiting Scientist in CBE, and his daughters Ana and Frances.
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