Richard Mead Goody (19 June 1921 – 3 August 2023) was a British-American atmospheric physicist and professor of planetary physics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He was inducted into the

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 1970.

Early life and education

A native of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, Goody attended

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, from which he received a bachelor's degree in physics in 1942. He then worked at the

Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment The Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) was a research facility for British military aviation from 1918 to 1992. Established at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, the unit moved in 1939 to Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, where its work ...

until October 1946, when he returned to Cambridge to receive his PhD, doing so in 1949. While there, he was instructed to build an

infrared spectrometer Infrared spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy or vibrational spectroscopy) is the measurement of the interaction of infrared radiation with matter by absorption, emission, or reflection. It is used to study and identify chemical substances or function ...

for use in an airplane to measure stratospheric dryness. He also made important discoveries into the structure of the

stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air ...

during this time, which led him to study

radiative transfer Radiative transfer is the physical phenomenon of energy transfer in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The propagation of radiation through a medium is affected by absorption, emission, and scattering processes. The equation of radiative tran ...

in planetary atmospheres. Related to this work, the best known and widely used model of absorption bands in atmospheric opacity is due to the work of Goody in 1952, and the model was initially known as the Goody random model. It was later discovered that

Harris Mayer Harris Louis Mayer (February 15, 1921 – September 17, 2023) was an American physicist known for his collaboration with Edward Teller and John von Neumann. He worked on the Manhattan Project. Mayer also worked on Project Orion (nuclear propulsi ...

's work under the supervision of

Edward Teller Edward Teller ( hu, Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care fo ...

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

published in 1947 had made similar calculations and many sources now call the model the Mayer-Goody model or the Mayer-Goody statistical model.

Scientific career

Goody was appointed the

Abbott Lawrence Rotch Abbott Lawrence Rotch (January 6, 1861 – April 7, 1912) was an American meteorologist and founder of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, the longest continually operating observation site in the United States and an important site for wo ...

Professor of Dynamic Meteorology and director of the

Blue Hill Observatory The Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts is the foremost structure associated with the history of weather observations in the United States. Located atop Great Blue Hill about 10 miles south of Boston, Massachusetts, it is ...

at Harvard in 1958 and elected into the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

the following year.Hitran Database Conference
p. 8 He became a US citizen in 1965. His 1964 book ''Atmospheric Radiation'' has been described as "classic". He served as the director of the Blue Hill Observatory until 1970, and the chair of the Space Studies Board of the

from 1974 to 1976. In 1970, Goody was the co-chair of a National Academy of Sciences study of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

entitled "Venus: Strategy for Exploration", and he was partly responsible for launching the

Pioneer Venus project The Pioneer Venus project was part of the Pioneer program consisting of two spacecraft, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, launched to Venus in 1978. The program was managed by NASA's Ames Research Center. The Pion ...

, which launched probes to Venus in 1978. He underwent compulsory retirement from Harvard in 1991. Goody was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1997.

Death

Richard Mead Goody died on 3 August 2023, at the age of 102.Richard Mead Goody obituary
peacefulalternatives.com. Accessed November 12, 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goody, Richard Mead 1921 births 2023 deaths People from Hertfordshire American centenarians Men centenarians 21st-century American physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Harvard University faculty Alumni of the University of Cambridge Atmospheric physicists British emigrants to the United States Members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the American Geophysical Union People with acquired American citizenship