Career
Landsberg received his Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt in Germany, where Beno Gutenberg was his advisor. Gutenberg was a pupil of the founder of modern seismology Emil Johann Wiechert. and served as a director of the Taunus Observatory of Geophysics and Meteorology at that university before moving to the United States in 1934 to teach geophysics and meteorology at the Pennsylvania State University. While there, he offered a graduate seminar on bioclimatic problems, the first such graduate course to be taught in the United States. He was subsequently appointed to the faculties of the University of Chicago (1941) and the University of Maryland (1967), with which he continued to work until his death. At Maryland, he served as first Director of the Graduate program in Meteorology (later named the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science), and of the Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics.
In addition to his work in the field of education, Landsberg was active in public service. During World War II, he headed a project for the United States Air Force that provided information on climate and weather statistics in areas undergoing military missions. The U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff officially commended him for this service. In 1949, Landsberg was appointed to the Air Pollution Committee of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, where he helped to shape U.S. air pollution regulations.
Landsberg's other work included administrative service and editing. For 15 volumes from 1964, Landsberg was the editor in chief of the journal World Study of Climatology. He served at the Cambridge Research Center as Director of the Geophysics Directorate (1951-1954) and at the United States Weather Bureau as Director of the Environmental Data Service (1954-1966).
He was a fellow, an honorary member, and Certified Consulting Meteorologist of the American Meteorological Society. He was president of the American Geophysical Union from 1968 to 1970. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1966. Wilfried Schröder has published memorial note on Helmut Landsberg in " Meteorologische Rundschau ", 1985.
Read more about this topic: Helmut Landsberg
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