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Clouds are the spark plugs in the heat engine of the tropical atmosphere, and heat from the tropics drives the planet's general circulation. Atmospheric scientists didn't know this in the 1950s, but Joanne Simpson, the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in meteorology, did. Most histories of meteorology focus on polar and temperate regions and the accomplishments of male scientists. They marginalize or erase completely the contributions of female researchers. Joanne's work on the tropical atmosphere did not fit this pattern.
Joanne had a lifelong passion for clouds and severe storms. She flew into and above them, photographed them, modeled them, attempted to modify them, and studied them from all angles. She held two university professorships, married three times, had two lovers (one secret), mentored a generation of meteorologists, and blazed a trail for other women to follow.
This book is about Joanne's personal and professional life, her career prospects as a woman in science, and her relationship to the tropical atmosphere. These multifaceted and interacting textual streams constitute a braided narrative and form a complex dynamic system that displays surprising emergent properties. Is Joanne Simpson best remembered as a pioneer woman scientist or the best tropical scientist of her generation? She was both, with the emphasis on best scientist.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: Dark Clouds at Dawn
- 2: Chicago
- 3: Woods Hole
- 4: The Path to Hot Towers
- 5: UCLA
- 6: NOAA
- 7: Virginia
- 8: NASA
- 9: Breaking Through
- Notes
- 10: Bibliography
- Index
About the author
James Rodger Fleming is a leading authority on weather, climate, and human affairs. He has served as a contributing author and expert reviewer for the IPCC. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society. Awards include the Eduard Brückner Prize for interdisciplinary climate research and the Sally Hacker and Louis J. Battan book prizes. He studied astronomy and atmospheric science before earning his Ph.D. in history from Princeton University. He enjoys fishing, good jazz, good BBQ, seeing students flourish, and, of course, watching clouds. Motto: "Everything is unprecedented if you don't study history."
Summary
This book is about Joanne Simpson, the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in meteorology. It encompasses her personal and professional life, her career prospects as a woman in science, and her pioneering contributions in understanding the tropical atmosphere.
Report
When Joanne Simpson (1923-2010) was awarded the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal in 1983, she was the first woman to win the award. The American Meteorological Society praised her outstanding studies of tropical convective clouds and her decades long research on hot towers and hurricanes, which had transformed scientists' understanding of the global circulation of heat. But her mother was unimpressed. "Everyone wonders why, if you are so good," she sniped, "that you have not yet been elected to the National Academy." That tension animates James Rodger Fleming's gripping biography, First Woman: Joanne Simpson and the Tropical Atmosphere. Rodger Turner, Science History Institute, Philadelphia
