Please join us Thursday, October 5, 2023, 7:00pm CDT, at the National Weather Center, room NWC 1313, for the 2023 Taylor-Wei Distinguished Lecture “Joanne Simpson and the Tropical Atmosphere” with James R. Fleming, Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, Emeritus (Colby College).
Please come early for a reception with light food and drink: 6:00-7:00 in the NWC Atrium.
Prof. Fleming's lecture will be based on his 2020 book, First Woman: Joanne Simpson and the Tropical Atmosphere. Joanne Simpson (1923-2010) was the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in meteorology. her path to the top was tortuous, multifaceted, and surprisingly complex - an 86-year rollercoaster ride of passion, soaring intellect, and gritty determination to succeed in a man's world at all cost and to blaze a trail for other women to follow. Joanne managed to soar - like a hot tower Cb - above all adversity and established the fundamental importance of tropical clouds as the drivers of the global circulatoin. She led large airborned observing projects, built computerized cloud models, and participated in experimental seeding of hurricanes and clouds. Her career culminated at NASA, where her most significant work, she said, was as project scientist for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, a staellite-based program alaunched in 1997 that employed radar and microwave imaging to unravel the dynamics of the tropics, which is home to up to half othe world's people. This talk provides a deep dive into Joanne's life to situate her story.
Webinar link: https://oklahoma.zoom.us/j/92288014243?pwd=T2xqZFFwaTFzblVXR25WWWlpWmRUQT09
