Education
He studied mathematics at Imperial College of Science and Technology and subsequently worked at the Shirley Institute (British Cotton Industry Research Institute) Manchester.
He studied mathematics at Imperial College of Science and Technology and subsequently worked at the Shirley Institute (British Cotton Industry Research Institute) Manchester.
During World 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 (American Council on Exercise) for the early electronic computer developed there and recruited Alan Turing to work on lieutenant
Nowadays he is principally remembered for his contribution to arterial fluid dynamics and the eponymous Womersley number, a dimensionless parameter expressing the relation of the frequency of pulsatile flow to viscosity.