Editorial in Tribute to John Aidan Fitzpatrick

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John Fitzpatrick was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, from 1994 to his passing away in Sept. 2012. The utter sadness of his death at the age of 63 was deeply felt by his family, friends, colleagues, and the International Community of Flow-Induced Vibration and Noise. The ASME FSI Technical Committee held a session in his memory during the PVP 2013 Conference which was held in Paris. This special topic section on Flow-Induced Vibration and Noise is dedicated to his memory and consists of selected papers of those presented in the PVP 2013 Conference. All papers have been expanded by the authors and rereviewed according to the ASME journal standards.Professor John Fitzpatrick was born on Sept. 3, 1949, in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, where he spent his formative years and there developed an abiding love of the sea and sailing. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in mechanical engineering at Queen's University, Belfast, completing his Ph.D. in 1976. He married Hilary in 1978 and then moved to Dunlaoghaire, near Dublin, to take up a lectureship position at the newly established mechanical engineering department at Trinity College. There, he enjoyed an enormously successful career, establishing a world class reputation for teaching and research in the field of flow-induced vibration and noise.John's fascination for flow-induced vibration and noise started during his Ph.D. studies, where he examined the fluid mechanics of heat exchanger tube arrays. His interest in the unsteady flow within tube arrays led to inquiring life-long studies of the fundamental mechanisms of noise generation from turbulence. Later, in his career, he became a prominent researcher in the areas of jet noise, where he led EU projects, combustion noise, as well as nonlinear mechanics. His research experience, his enthusiasm and above all, his capacity to inspire were not only witnessed by his colleagues but also felt by his students, many of whom are now themselves enthusiastic researchers in the community of flow-induced vibrations and aeroacoustics.During his career, John was invited to serve as a visiting Professor at McMaster University in Canada, CIRA in Italy, Poitiers in France, and Institute of Nuclear technology in Portugal. He also received many professional honors, including the Doctor of Science degree from Queen's University Belfast, Membership of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), and Fellowship of the Royal Society of Engineering (FREng). In addition to these scholarly activities, a huge part of John's professional life was Trinity itself and his commitment to his vision of the advancement of the School of Engineering there, especially during his tenure as the Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Dean of Engineering.John Fitzpatrick was a man with charisma—no matter what the subject matters, he could hold one's attention with the depth of his knowledge and his boundless enthusiasm, aided of course by that lovely lilting accent of his. I was so fortunate to spend a 6-month sabbatical stay at Trinity College in 2008 and very much enjoyed John's friendship, collegiality, inspiration, and above all his humor.The topics of the papers included in this special issue are spread over the areas of Professor Fitzpatrick's research activities, including vibration and noise of tube arrays, aeroacoustics of cavities and corrugated pipes, nonlinear dynamics of tube bundle vibrations, and acoustic excitation of steam dryers in boiling water reactors. I would like to thank the authors for expanding their PVP conference papers and submitting them to this special issue.