James Murdoch Austin

Infobox Scientist
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name = James M. Austin


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caption = James Murdoch Austin
birth_date = 1915
birth_place = Dunedin, New Zealand
death_date = November 26, 2000
death_place = Concord, Massachusetts, United States
residence =
citizenship =
nationality =
ethnicity =
fields = Mathematics and Meteorology
workplaces = MIT
alma_mater = Otago University
University of New Zealand
MIT
doctoral_advisor = Sverre Petterssen
academic_advisor =
doctoral_students = Edward Norton Lorenz
notable_students =
known_for = Meteorology of air pollution
influences =
influenced =
awards = Medal of Freedom
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James Murdoch Austin, (1915 – 2000) was notable for his pioneering modeling of the meteorology of air pollution, especially that of smokestack particulates. He is also notable as the doctoral advisor of the pioneer of chaos theory and early practitioner of numerical weather prediction, Edward Norton Lorenz.

Early life and education

Austin was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. He graduated from Otago University in 1935 and obtained a master's degree in mathematics from the University of New Zealand in 1936 and the ScD in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1941. Under Sverre Petterssen, the thesis he produced was entitled "Fronts and Frontogenesis in Relation to Vorticity."

Personal life

Austin was married for 59 years to Dr. Pauline Morrow Austin, who for years directed the MIT Weather Radar project. Their two daughters are Doris A. Price of Annapolis, Maryland and Carol T. West of Gainesville, Florida.

Career

Austin was a professor of meteorology at MIT from 1941-83. He was also the first director of MIT's Summer Session, holding that position from 1956-83.

As a forecaster during World War II, he served as a consultant to the US Army Air Force weather service in Europe. His forecasting work was a factor in the decisions on the final bombardment of Cherbourg, France and the D-Day landing of airborne troops, as well as the movement of advance mobile weather stations across northern France. In 1946, President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Medal of Freedom for his civilian wartime service.

He consulted for major power companies in the nation's first efforts to control pollution from energy-generating plants. He also brought meteorology into homes in eastern Massachusetts. On June 9, 1948, he launched a nightly weather forecast on WBZ-TV, the first television program broadcast live from Boston.

Austin was a former secretary of the American Meteorological Society and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Death

As a resident of Concord, Massachusetts, James M. Austin died on November 26, aged 85.

Books by Austin

* Bernhard Haurwitz and James M. Austin, "Climatology", New York, London, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1944.

External links

* [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2000/austin-1206.html Austin's obituary]
* [http://library.mit.edu/F/J9K58VHG2TXGRJEH41RCP2HT8B1IXE8CBVYBD7RFXBLGURIX1C-22098?func=find-acc&acc_sequence=005518565 Austin's thesis]