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Gregory Paul Bewley

Associate Professor

Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Gregory Paul Bewley
Gregory Paul Bewley
Graduate Field Affiliations
Aerospace Engineering
Atmospheric Science
Mechanical Engineering
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Biography

Greg Bewley is a graduate of Cornell University and is very proud to return to his Alma mater, where he studied Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and where he built composite acoustic guitars and composite wings for a sailboat. In the intervening years, he was awarded a PhD from Yale University for discovering how to observe the quantized vortex dynamics of turbulent liquid helium. He continued this work at the University of Maryland before crossing the ocean for an opportunity at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany. As a group leader there, he led the effort to bring a new facility, the Variable Density Turbulence Tunnel, to life.

Research Interests

Greg Bewley’s work focuses on turbulence, both its intrinsic properties and its role in various environmental settings. In clouds, turbulence causes droplets to collide. In superfluid helium, it causes quantized vortices to reconnect. Left to itself, the turbulence slowly dissipates and disappears. Greg Bewley has contributed to making all of these phenomena accessible experimentally through novel interpretation of experimental data and the invention of new devices and techniques. His interest is in providing inspiration for theoretical understanding through experimental observations made, for example, in soccer-ball cloud chambers and in wind tunnels. An emerging interest is the interaction between turbulence and animal flight.

  • Fluid Dynamics and Rheology
  • Turbulence

Teaching Interests

Fluid dynamics, Turbulence, Experimental fluid dynamics, Dynamics of Flight.

Select Publications

  • Sinhuber, M., E. Bodenschatz, G P Bewley. 2015.”On the Decay of Turbulence at High Reynolds Numbers.”Physical review letters114(3): 034501.

  • Bewley, G P., E W. Saw, E Bodenschatz. 2013.”Observation of the Sling Effect.”New journal of physics15(8): 083051-083051.

  • Bewley, G P., K. Chang, E Bodenschatz. 2012.”On Integral Length Scales in Anisotropic Turbulence.”Physics of Fluids24(6): 061702.

  • Bewley, G P., M S. Paoletti, K R. Sreenivasan, D P Lathrop. 2008.”Characterization of Reconnecting Vortices in Superfluid Helium.”Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences105(37): 13707-13710.

  • Bewley, G P., D P. Lathrop, K R Sreenivasan. 2006.”Visualization of Quantized Vortices.”Nature441(7093): 588.

Gregory P. Bewley's Google Scholar

Select Awards and Honors

  • Robert '55 and Vanne '57 Cowie Teaching Award, College of Engineering, Cornell University 2019
  • Gordon Lankton Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow, College of Engineering, Cornell University 2016
  • Turbulent Mixing and Beyond young scientist award 2011
  • Turbulent Mixing and Beyond young scientist award 2000

Education

  • B.S., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University 2000
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Yale University 2006