29 Facts About Joseph Smagorinsky

Joseph Smagorinsky was born to Nathan Smagorinsky and Dina Azaroff.

Joseph Smagorinsky's parents were from Gomel, Belarus, which they fled during the life-threatening pogroms of the early 20th century.

Joseph Smagorinsky attended Stuyvesant High School for Math and Science in Manhattan.

Sam and David prevailed in their view that Joseph Smagorinsky had great promise and deserved the opportunity to go to college.

Those talents led Joseph Smagorinsky to be selected for the air force meteorology program.

Joseph Smagorinsky was then sent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to learn dynamical meteorology.

Joseph Smagorinsky's instructor was Ed Lorenz, who later pioneered the mathematical theory of deterministic chaos.

Joseph Smagorinsky originally aspired to be a naval architect, but was not admitted to the Webb Institute.

Joseph Smagorinsky then turned to meteorology as a career and educational focus.

Joseph Smagorinsky's wife Margaret Smagorinsky was a member of the team that programmed the ENIAC computer, and was the first woman statistician hired by the Weather Bureau.

Joseph Smagorinsky was not satisfied with mathematics as an abstract practice.

At the Institute for Advanced Study, he used his mathematical knowledge and Joseph Smagorinsky worked with Charney to develop a new approach called numerical weather prediction.

Joseph Smagorinsky continued to direct the lab until his retirement in January, 1983.

Joseph Smagorinsky assigned Manabe to the General Circulation Model coding and development effort.

Joseph Smagorinsky realized that it would take large-scale numerical modeling with teams of scientists using commonly shared high-speed computers to achieve such a breakthrough.

Joseph Smagorinsky invited many scientists from outside the normal circle to provide the broadest perspective on weather forecasts.

Joseph Smagorinsky continued this practice of inviting scientists to GFDL who could take on the project of producing a comprehensive theory of atmospheric processes, valuing talent and creativity over what he regarded as irrelevant factors such as field or nationality.

Joseph Smagorinsky wanted junior scientists such as us to focus on solving difficult scientific challenges of major relevance to NOAA, the United States, and the world.

Joseph Smagorinsky was among the earliest researchers who sought to exploit new methods of numerical weather prediction to extend forecasting past one or two days.

Joseph Smagorinsky published a seminal paper in 1963 on his research using primitive equations of atmospheric dynamics to simulate the atmosphere's circulation.

Joseph Smagorinsky extended early weather models to include variables such as wind, cloud cover, precipitation, atmospheric pressure and radiation emanating from the earth and sun.

Joseph Smagorinsky earned fame for his ability to secure the world's fastest computers for his laboratory time and time again.

Joseph Smagorinsky led or contributed to international committees to improve global weather forecasts.

Tony Hollingsworth of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts made the point in his remarks at the Princeton lecture after Joseph Smagorinsky was presented with the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth Science that Joseph Smagorinsky's work resulted in saving millions of lives around the world in that severe weather predictions such as hurricanes could alert whole towns to be saved.

The year GFDL moved to Princeton, Joseph Smagorinsky was named a visiting lecturer with the rank of professor in geological and geophysical sciences at the university.

Joseph Smagorinsky helped develop the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, a doctoral program in the Department of Geosciences that collaborates closely with the GFDL.

Joseph Smagorinsky was married to Margaret Frances Elizabeth Knoepfel from May 29,1948, to his death at age 81 on September 21,2005.

At the memorial gathering at Guyot Hall, Princeton University in October, 2005, following Joseph Smagorinsky's September death, he was honored with the following story of his life, sung to the tune of Ervin Drake's "It Was a Very Good Year":.

Joseph Smagorinsky's beloved wife Margaret died on November 14,2011, and was buried with him in Princeton Cemetery.