Robert Edward Munn (1919 – 7 September 2013) was a Canadian

climatologist Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...

and

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 ...

Early life and education

Munn was born in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, and was a grandson of Stuart Jenkins, a well-known writer in the 1890s for ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

''. Jenkins' frequent lectures about natural sciences helped develop Munn's interest in the inductive sciences, which he studied at

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

Career

Upon graduation in 1941, Munn became a weather forecaster, spending 1943 to 1949 in

Gander, Newfoundland Gander is a town located in the northeastern part of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, approximately south of Gander Bay, south of Twillingate and east of Grand Falls-Windsor. Located on the nor ...

where he briefed

RAF Ferry Command RAF Ferry Command was the secretive Royal Air Force command formed on 20 July 1941 to ferry urgently needed aircraft from their place of manufacture in the United States and Canada, to the front line operational units in Britain, Europe, North Af ...

and other wartime pilots on their way to Britain. In the late 1950s, Ted registered as a PhD student at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. At the time of his graduation in the early 1960s, he was the only Canadian meteorologist with training in

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

. He served as president of the Canadian Branch of the Royal Meteorological Society, 1964–66, and on several international committees, including WMO and ICSU. He spent a winter in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

working with Bert Bolin on the acid rain issue, and for 17 years he was editor-in-chief of the SCOPE series of 60 books relating to interdisciplinary environmental topics. In 1983, he was appointed head of the environmental group at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Then in 1990, he returned to the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, to the Institute of Environmental Studies, where he taught a course on Global Environment Change, and edited a 5-volume Encyclopedia, Global Environmental Change (John Wiley, UK.) Each volume is about 750 pages in length. Munn was the founder of the Journal ''Boundary Layer Meteorology''. Munn was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

in 1985"R. Munn"
Royal Society of Canada. and published several books and many scientific articles on environmental topics.

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munn, Robert Edward 1919 births 2013 deaths Canadian climatologists Canadian meteorologists McMaster University alumni University of Michigan alumni