Hendrik (Henk) Tennekes (born December 13, 1936, Kampen died July 3, 2021,

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

) was the director of research at the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (''Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut'', or KNMI), and was a Professor of

Aeronautical Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

at Pennsylvania State University and Professor of

Meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

at the

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

(Free University (VU) in Amsterdam). He is known for his work in the fields of

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

and multi-modal forecasting. He authored the textbooks ''The Simple Science of Flight: From Insects to Jumbo Jets'' and ''A First Course in Turbulence'' with

John L. Lumley John Leask Lumley (4 November 1930 in Detroit, Michigan – 30 May 2015 in Ithaca, New York) was an American fluid dynamicist and a professor at Cornell University. He is widely known for his research in turbulence and is the coauthor of ''A First ...

. The book "A First Course in Turbulence", is a classic that logs more than 2,000 citations on Google Scholar. Tennekes has stressed the limited predictability of complex systems and the limited value of predictions based on

scientific modeling Scientific modelling is a scientific activity, the aim of which is to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate by referencing it to existing and usually commonly accepted ...

. He was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, KNAW) from 1982 – 2010.

Controversy

In an interview in the Dutch paper '' De Telegraaf'', Tennekes says he was ousted from his position at the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute due to his skepticism over climate change. After publishing a column critical of climate model accuracy, Tennekes says he was told "within two years, you'll be out on the street".

Books

*''The Simple Science of Flight'', MIT Press, 1997. *''The Simple Science of Flight. From Insects to Jumbo Jets. Revised and Expanded Edition'', 2009. MIT Press. Paperback *''A First Course in Turbulence'', with

, MIT Press, 1972.

References

External links

The Lorenz paradigm and the limitations of climate models

A Personal Call For Modesty, Integrity, and Balance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennekes, Hendrik 1936 births Living people Dutch meteorologists People from Kampen, Overijssel Fluid dynamicists Aerodynamicists Pennsylvania State University faculty Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Dutch flight instructors