Jørgen Holmboe (November 8, 1902 – October 29, 1979) was a Norwegian-American

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

Life and career

Jørgen Holmboe was born near

Hammerfest Hammerfest (; sme, Hámmerfeasta ) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. Hammerfest is the northernmost town in the world with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hammerf ...

, Norway, on an island a short distance from the northernmost point in Norway. He was the son of priest Leonhard Christian Borchgrevink Holmboe, Jr. and his wife Thea Louise Schetelig. He had several brothers and sisters. His great-grandfather Leonhard Christian Borchgrevink Holmboe was a priest and national politician.Norwegian He received his early education from his father, who was a minister, attended secondary school in

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...

, and took his university entrance examinations in Bodø. He entered the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in 1922. In 1925, he was appointed research assistant to Professor

Vilhelm Bjerknes Vilhelm Friman Koren Bjerknes ( , ; 14 March 1862 – 9 April 1951) was a Norwegian physicist and meteorologist who did much to found the modern practice of weather forecasting. He formulated the primitive equations that are still in use in num ...

, who had moved from

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

where as founding director of the Geophysical Institute he had led development of the

Bergen School of Meteorology __NOTOC__ The "Bergen School of Meteorology" is a school of thought which is the basis for much of modern weather forecasting. Founded by the meteorologist Prof. Vilhelm Bjerknes and his younger colleagues in 1917, the Bergen School attempts to de ...

. In 1930, he passed his Candidate Real examinations and took a position as meteorologist in the Norwegian Weather Service in Tromsø. In 1932, he was transferred to Bergen, and, from 1933 to 1935, he served as meteorologist with the Lincoln Ellsworth Antarctic Expedition. In 1936, he was invited to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 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 ...

, where he served as assistant professor. In 1940, he was asked to join in establishing a meteorology program at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. The program was initially part of the physics department; it became a separate department in 1946. Holmboe was chairman for the first year after the Department of Meteorology was established and served as chairman again for the period from 1949 through 1958. In 1944, Holmboe became a naturalized American citizen. Holmboe was elected 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, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance th ...

and 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 a ...

and foreign member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

.''Jorgen Holmboe, Meteorology: Los Angeles'' (by Morris Neiburger, James G. Edinger, and Norton G. Wurtele. The Regents of The University of California

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Selected works

*''On the Theory of Cyclones'' (paper jointly with J. Bjerknes. 1944) *''Dynamic Meteorology'' (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 1952) *''On the instability of stratified shear flow'' (Universitetsforlaget. 1966) *''Instability of baroclinic three-layer models of the atmosphere'' (Universitetsforlaget. 1968)

References

Sources

* ''A Biography of Jorgen Holmboe, 1902-1979'' (by Jason Zarat

External links

Jorgen Holmboe Papers
MSS-S 101
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Norwegian meteorologists People from Hammerfest University of California, Los Angeles faculty Norwegian emigrants to the United States University of Oslo alumni 1902 births 1979 deaths Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Fellows of the American Meteorological Society {{Norway-scientist-stub