John R. Womersley

Who was John R. Womersley?

John Ronald Womersley was a British mathematician who made important contributions to textiles, computing and arterial mechanics. He studied mathematics at Imperial College of Science and Technology and subsequently worked at the Shirley Institute Manchester. During World War II he was head of the Ministry of Supply Advisory Service on Statistical Methods. At the end of the war he was appointed superintendent of the Mathematics Division of the National Physical Laboratory. He coined the name Automatic Computing Engine for the early electronic computer developed there and recruited Alan Turing to work on it. Nowadays he is principally remembered for his contribution to arterial fluid dynamics and the eponymous Womersley number, a dimensionless parameter expression the relation of the frequency of pulsatile flow to viscosity.