ERIK MOLLO-CHRISTENSEN OBITUARY

(Questions or more information:

Erik Mollo-Christensen (son): emollo-christensen@tka-architects.com

Anne Mollo-Christensen (daughter): annemollo@gmail.com

Peter Mollo-Christensen (son): petermollo@aol.com

 

 

Erik Mollo-Christensen, retired MIT professor and NASA scientist, died on Friday, February 20th at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 86 and was a resident of Lexington, Massachusetts.

 

Active into his early eighties, he developed Primary Progressive Aphasia which took away his ability to communicate.

 

Dr. Mollo-Christensen spent over thirty years teaching at MIT as Professor in the Departments of Aeronautics, Meteorology and Oceanography. In 1986 he left MIT when he was appointed Chief, Laboratory for Oceans at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Prior to his retirement in 1991, Mollo-Christensen was Associate Director for Earth Sciences at NASA, where he served as chief scientist for the earth sciences. Upon retirement, Mollo-Christensen taught a graduate course in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University and consulted on several projects.

 

Widely published, Dr. Mollo-Christensen was credited with significant discoveries in the physics of turbulence flow, jet noise, aero elasticity, air-sea interaction and the field of fluid dynamics, including major work on blood flow.

 

In 1957 Mollo-Christensen was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and he was the 1970 Von Karman lecturer of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of the American Physical Society.

 

Dr. Mollo-Christensen was born in Bergen, Norway on January 10, 1923. His father, Axel Mollo-Christensen, was an Engineer. His mother, Helga Holmboe Mollo-Christensen, was a Chemist and Author.

As a student at Oslo University during World War II, Dr. Mollo-Christensen was a member of the Norwegian resistance and was captured and sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1943.

 

After the war, Dr. Mollo-Christensen returned briefly to Norway before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts and earning a B.Sc., M.Sc., and Sc.D at MIT. In 1955, he was hired as an Assistant Professor at MIT and made full Professor in 1962.

 

Dr. Mollo-Christensen was a great outdoor enthusiast and loved hiking, skiing, sailing and being near the ocean, where he conducted buoy research off Cuttyhunk Island, MA where his family built a summer home. He frequently consulted with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and was a widely-sought after lecturer on tides and currents, consulting the government of Bangladesh and the city of Venice. He was a voracious reader and spoke many languages.

 

A 56 year resident of Lexington, he will be remembered as a devoted husband, loving father, involved citizen and good friend to his many colleagues, neighbors and students. He served as a Town Meeting Member in Lexington for ten years, and played a key leadership role in the establishment of the Minuteman Regional Vocational-Technical High School.

 

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Johanna Waller Mollo-Christensen, of Lexington, Massachusetts; three children, Erik Mollo-Christensen of Sudbury, MA and his wife Mary, Peter Mollo-Christensen of Carlisle, MA. and his wife Mary Ann Perry, Anne Mollo-Christensen of Chicago, IL and her husband Paul, six grandchildren Sarah, David, Elizabeth, Alice, Gustav and Nora, and his brother, Sverre Mollo-Christensen, of Oslo, Norway along with many nieces and nephews.

 

A celebration of his life will be held in the spring. For those who wish, contributions in Dr. Mollo-Christensen’s memory may be made to the Mt. Auburn Hospital, 330 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.