Norman Alton Phillips
American Meteorological Society Oral History Project
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On October 2, 1989, Tony Hollingsworth, Warren Washington, Joe Tribbia, and Akira Kasahara interviewed Norman Alton Phillips for the American Meteorological Society’s Tape Recorded Interview Project. Phillips recounts his upbringing in Chicago, his early influences in science, and his education, emphasizing his military service during World War II, which introduced him to meteorology. He details his academic journey at the University of Chicago, including his influential work on two-layer and baroclinic models of atmospheric motion, as well as his pivotal contributions to numerical weather prediction. Phillips describes his collaboration with notable scientists such as Jule Charney and John von Neumann, focusing on the development of early computational models for forecasting. He reflects on his participation in the ENIAC project and his work at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, which shaped the early use of computers in meteorology. Phillips discusses his international experiences, including his time in Stockholm and Oslo, where he assisted in implementing numerical weather prediction models on early Swedish computers. He also elaborates on his groundbreaking 1956 general circulation experiment, which provided insights into atmospheric dynamics and remains a foundational study in meteorology.
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