L.C. Smith College mourns passing of Professor Hiroshi Higuchi

Hiroshi Higuchi, professor at the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University, died Nov. 22. Higuchi was known to be a dedicated teacher, well-known researcher and cherished colleague in the fields of aerospace and mechanical engineering.

Calling hours will be held Friday, Nov. 26, from noon-2:30 p.m. at the Eaton-Tubbs-Schepp Funeral Home, 7191 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville.

“Dr. Higuchi was an outstanding faculty member at L.C. Smith,” says LCS Dean Laura J. Steinberg. “He was adored by our students and held in the highest regard by all. His dedication to teaching and research, and to his beloved Tango Foxtrot flight simulator for training aerospace engineering students, will be immensely missed at the college.”

Higuchi joined L.C. Smith as an associate professor in 1989 in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He was instrumental in cultivating a relationship between the L.C. Smith College and Tohuku University in Sendai, Japan, including spending two years as a professor at the university’s engineering school.

Higuchi’s research activities spanned a broad spectrum from collaborating on research with JAXA—the Japanese counterpart to NASA—to studying bluff-body aerodynamics and most recently researching personal ventilation systems and biofluids. He was also an associate fellow at the American Institute of Aeronatics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Higuchi was a pilot and instrument-certified flight instructor and guided L.C. Smith students from the cockpit of the college’s MOTUS 622i flight simulator, named Tango Foxtrot. Higuchi had logged hundreds of thousands of miles on his own passport. He brought the influence and perspective of L.C. Smith to students around the world and shared his experiences and expertise with those he mentored.

“This is truly a tragic loss for all of us in the department,” says Achille Messac, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “Professor Higuchi was beloved by his students, to whom he was so supremely committed. He was a consummate scholar and a dear colleague. His commitment was evident until the very end. We will miss him tremendously.”