Joseph Pedlosky (born April 7, 1938) is an American physical oceanographer. He is a scientist emeritus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Pedlosky was elected to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1985. He is the author of the textbooks ''Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Ocean Circulation Theory, and Waves in the Ocean'' and ''Atmosphere: Introduction to Wave Dynamics''.

Biography

Pedlosky grew up in Paterson, New Jersey. He completed his Ph.D. in 1963 under the supervision of

Jule Charney Jule Gregory Charney (January 1, 1917 – June 16, 1981) was an American meteorologist who played an important role in developing numerical weather prediction and increasing understanding of the general circulation of the atmosphere by devisin ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

. In 1966, as a young assistant professor at MIT, he refused to sign the

Massachusetts Teachers' Oath The Massachusetts Teachers' Oath was a loyalty oath required to teach in Massachusetts from 1935 to 1967. Passage In response to political radicalism during the Great Depression, several states passed legislation that required public school teache ...

ultimately bringing the case to the state supreme court. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court invalidated the legislation in 1967 in its ruling ''Pedlosky v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology''.

Research

Pedlosky has made fundamental contributions in the study of baroclinic instability and the thermal structure of the ocean, particularly the oceanic thermocline.

Awards and honors

*1970: Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award, American Meteorological Society *1981: Fellow of the

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the Atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, Oceanography, oceanic, and Hydrology, hydr ...

*1985: Elected to the

*1986: Fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

1996 Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences *1997: Fellow of the

American Association for Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

*2005: Sverdrup Gold Medal, American Meteorological Society *2009: Bernard Haurwitz Award, American Meteorological Society *2011: Maurice Ewing Medal, American Geophysical Union

References

Works

External links

Joseph Pedlosky's homepage at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pedlosky, Joseph Physical oceanographers American oceanographers Living people Fluid dynamicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1938 births Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sverdrup Gold Medal Award Recipients Fellows of the American Meteorological Society