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news and notes New Chairman of FSU meteorology department appointed J. J. Stephens, an AMS member, has been selected for his second term as Chairman of the Department of Meteorology at Florida State University, Tallahassee. Stephens, whose new appointment is effective 3 July, previously served as department chairman during 1975-77; his present appointment is expected to run until the summer of 1984. Stephens has been a Professor of Meteorology at FSU since 1971. He holds the B.S. (1958) in meteorology and the M.A. (1961) in mathematics from the University of Texas; he holds the Ph. D. (1966) in meteorology from Texas A&M University. Between 1957 and 1964 he held a number of research positions and academic appoint- ments, among them meteorologist, U.S. Weather Bureau (now NWS); Lecturer in Meteorology and research meteorologist, Uni- versity of Texas; and National Defense Education Act Fellow and Teaching Fellow, Texas A&M. In 1963, he was named a research scientist and Assistant Professor of Meteorology at the University of Texas. He became an Associate Professor of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma in 1966 and joined FSU a year later in the same capacity. He was appointed a full professor there in 1971. During the 1969 spring academic semester he was a Visiting Asso- ciate Professor at the University of Chicago and, during the 1974 summer session at the University of Oklahoma, he was a Visiting Professor. Since 1968 Stephens has been active in committees and panels of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the George J. Haltiner (left) receives from Capt. William Schrann, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He USN, a plaque commemorating the renaming of the NPS was Chairman of NCAR's Field Observing Facility Advisory Panel Research Chair of Meteorology in Haltiner's name. The presen- during 1976-77 and member of the University Corporation for tation took place in January during retirement ceremonies for Atmospheric Research Members' University Relations Committee Haltiner at NPS. during 1974-78. He was Principal Investigator for two projects with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., and was Principal Investigator for three National Science Foundation funded research projects at FSU. He also has served as member and chairman of numerous committees and councils within FSU. Meteorology. In a ceremony during which the Commanding Officer Stephens has published many papers in both AMS and other of the U.S. Naval Environmental Prediction Research Facility scientific journals; his interests are centered in electromagnetic scat- (NEPRF), Capt. William Schrann, USN, presented NPS with a tering by hydrometeors and geophysical data processing and experi- plaque having spaces for the names of past and future Chair mental design. He has served as a consultant to NOAA and its holders,1 Haltiner's long time contributions to Navy meteorology predecessor organization, the Environmental Science Services were chronicled (see photo). Administration, and is a member (1981) of the SESAME (Severe These contributions include the suggestion to create the Research Environmental Storms and Mesoscale Experiment) Steering Chair of Meteorology in recognition of the important role of applied Committee. research in the Navy's atmospheric science program.2 That Chair, Stephens served on the AMS Committee on Radar Meteorology which now bears Haltiner's name, was created in 1977 through a during 1968-71 and was an Associate Editor of the Jou RNAL OF THE ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES during 1974-78. He has been an Associate Editor of METEOROLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS since 1973. 'Past occupants of the Chair whose names are inscribed on the plaque are: Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) Professor Richard A. Ant he s, 1977-78; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Earth Satellite Service Research Scientist Henry E. Fleming, 1978-79; Penn State Professor Hans A. George J. Haltiner Research Chair of Meteorology Panofsky, Colorado State University Professor William M. Gray, at NPS University of Washington Senior Research Associate Robert A. Brown, and NPS Professor Donald P. Gaver, 1979-80; and Univer- At the January celebration honoring the retirement of Prof. George sity of Washington Professor Joost A. Businger, 1980-81.—News J. Haltiner from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, Ed. Calif., the Naval Air Systems Command Research Chair of Meteo- Announcement of the creation of the NPS Research Chair was rology was renamed the George J. Haltiner Research Chair of published in the July 1977 issue of the BULLETIN (p. 613).—News Ed. Bulletin American Meteorological Society 1059 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/06/21 07:12 AM UTC 1060 Vol. 62, No. 7, July 1981 memorandum of understanding between the Naval Air Systems tributors to acidity as sulfates and nitrates. The analysis is expected Command (NAVAIR), which funds the Chair, and NPS. As a to reveal any differences between the two methods of collecting and NAVAIR field activity in Monterey and the Navy's principal meteo- analyzing data. rology research and development activity, NEPRF was designated Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colo., is conducting the by NAVAIR as the local agent in matters relating to the Chair. U.S. instrument studies for NOAA. A Canadian government Also awarded to Haltiner at the time of his retirement was the agency, Environment Canada, is performing the Canadian study. Navy Distinguished Service Award, the highest honorary award the The Illinois State Water Survey, Urbana, 111., will analyze rain Secretary of the Navy may confer upon a civilian employee of the samples collected here. Department of the Navy. Haltiner was cited for his outstanding Collectors have been placed at an NWS site in Caribou, Me.; an service as Chairman of the NPS Meteorology Department and for agricultural experiment station in Marcel, Minn.; and Glacier his management, initiative, intellect, and academic skills that estab- National Park, Mont. Environment Canada has provided sites at lished an internationally recognized program of the highest educa- Lethbridge, Alberta; Mount Forest, Ontario; and Kejimkujik, Nova tional excellence in meteorology. Scotia. Haltiner's January retirement came after 39 years of federal ser- vice. He received the B.S. (1970), Summa Cum Laude, in mathemat- ics, from the College of St. Thomas, Minnesota. He continued to study mathematics at the University of Wisconsin (UW), where he NOAA finds lightning superbolts in Oklahoma earned the M.A. in 1942. A month later he was commissioned in the storms U.S. Naval Reserve and called to active duty. He received orders to the University of Chicago to study meteorology and then served in A rare type of lightning bolt previously not thought to occur in the Naval Weather Command for the remainder of World War II, flatlands has been discovered in Oklahoma prairie storms and could including a short tour at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in pose a danger to structures not built to withstand it. Scientists with La Jolla, Calif. Upon release from active duty in August 1946, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say Haltiner became an Assistant Professor of Aerology at NPS, then the discovery could indicate that buildings or power plants designed located in Annapolis, Md. (NPS was moved to Monterey in 1948.) on the assumption that such destructive bolts do not occur in flat- While on a leave of absence in 1947, Haltiner completed graduate lands might not be safe. studies in mathematics at UW, receiving the Ph.D. in 1948. In 1953, The positive charge cloud-to-ground flashes once were thought to he was made a full professor at NPS, and was appointed Chairman strike only when triggered by a tall structure or mountaintop, or, on of the (then) Department of Meteorology and Oceanography. When rare occasions, at the end of a storm. "Most storms never produce the department was split in 1968, Haltiner headed the new (and this kind of lightning," said W. David Rust, a researcher at NOAA's present) meteorology department until his retirement. National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.3 "In a few Haltiner has published numerous papers on theoretical and ap- storms, there may be one positive bolt, just as the storm is plied meteorology and is coauthor of Dynamical and Physical dissipating—sort of the last gasp of the storm." Meteorology, a textbook widely used in the United States and Rust added that the triggered bolts often are very high current, abroad, that has been translated into Russian. In 1980, he published making them especially destructive. "We know these bolts don't Numerical Weather Prediction, a much enlarged second edition of occur in garden variety storms. We are trying to find if the occur- his 1971 Numerical Prediction and Dynamic Meteorology, written rence of this kind of lightning is linked with storm severity," Rust with R. T. Williams. said. Haltiner was elected a Fellow of AMS in 1971 and served on the AMS Council during 1969-72. He has served as well on the AMS committees on awards, Fellows, Honorary Members, and forecast- ing. He is a foreign member of the Royal Meteorological Society and SERI, CSU energy farm the Japanese Meteorological Society. A Commanding Officer of Naval Reserve Research Company With research and monetary assistance from the Department of 12-8 from 1962 to 1965, Haltiner retired from the Navy with the rank Energy's (DOE) Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), Colorado of Captain after more than 30 years of service. In 1969 he was State University (CSU), Ft. Collins, Colo., recently submitted to the awarded the title Distinguished Professor at the Naval Postgraduate Colorado General Assembly a proposal to create a 200-acre "energy School, and he now bears the title of Professor Emeritus. farm" at the university. Haltiner continues to reside in Monterey.