David Allan Spence FIMA FRAeS (3 January 1926 – 7 September 2003) was a mathematician who applied his mathematical skills in the aeronautics industry, and to the understanding of geophysical problems.
[1] [3] He was employed for a period of time at the then Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, after which he was appointed to the Engineering Department of the University of Oxford, where he stayed for twenty years.
His paper, The lift coefficient of a thin, jet-flapped wing, his most significant work of the period, was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, in 1956.
This latter work enabled him to apply his skills to the study of magma flow beneath the earth's surface, and how it behaves in the presence of fractures, thereby obtaining a better understanding of volcanic eruptions.
He continued his research across a range of disciplines, one of which involved the use of injected water to enhance oil recovery from a well - important for energy conservation of depleting reserves in areas such as the North Sea.