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HELMUT E
.
1906-1985
LANDSBERG
WRITTEN BY FERDINAND BAER
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
HELMUT E LANDSBERG perhaps the most renowned climatol-
ogist of the twentieth century, died on December 6, 1985, in
Geneva, Switzerland, while attending, as a delegate, the ninth
session oftheWorIdMeteorologicalOrganization (WMO) Com-
mission for Climatology. He was at that time a professor emeritus
of meteorology at the University of Maryland, College Park.
It normally takes many individuals working jointly to make
significant scientific disciplinary advances. Of those contribu-
tors, some develop special interests and pursue and expand
those specialties for following generations to continue. Some
administer scientific programs and activities. Some educate the
next generation of scientists. Some move public opinion to
attract resources and fresh manpower to their discipline. Some
integrate current and past ideas to open avenues for new con-
cepts and studies. Occasionally an individual may span several of
these activities in a career. Only exceptionally rarely does one
individual make significant contributions to all these activities in
one lifetime. Helmut E. Landsberg was one of these rare people.
Landsberg advanced our knowledge of climatology through his
own research, that of his students, and that of his many cowork-
ers. He was in the forefront of teaching at universities, guiding
international organizations, and directing national agencies. He
developed regional and national applied climatological net-
works. He integrated atmospheric science into human affairs
153
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154
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
through political input and public documents. He stimulated
professional organizations to interact and clarify scientific
thought, ant! he interwove government, university, and private
practitioners into a creative medium for scientific progress.
Landsberg was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on
February 9,1906. He spent his student years from 1925 to 1930
at the University of Frankfurt, taking a basic curriculum of
physics, mathematics, and geophysics. He took courses in mete-
orology at the Geophysics Institute and completed his thesis
dissertation in seismology in 1930. At this juncture Lancisberg
realized his intense interest in the atmosphere, and more from
an observational viewpoint; he was fon{l of saying that meteorol-
ogy was an observational science. He first took on a project to set
up a climatological network in a local wine-producing district.
He then turned to practical forecasting by joining the Taunus
Observatorywhere he stayed, ultimately becoming its chief, until
1934. The observatory provided extensive experience and broad-
ened Landsberg's perspective. Indeed, it was at Taunus that his
love for libraries blossomed. Because the observatory was more
often than not surrounded by fog, Landsberg used the time to
devour all the meteorological literature he could find.
Lancisberg was recruited to teach geophysics at Penn State in
1934. As the first meteorologist at that institution, he set up an
observatorywith the help of some students and began a teaching
program that evolved into the present meteorology department.
In 1941 he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago, where
he developed a field course for cadets who were in attendance
during that period.
Shortly before the end of the Second World War, Landsberg
shifted gears, moved out of academia and into the world of
science administration in the federal government. He first was a
consultant to the U.S. Air Force and then became executive
director of the Commission on Geophysics and Geography of
the Research and Development Board, a position he held from
1948 to 1951. From 1951 to 1954 he was director of the Geophys-
ics Directorate of the Air Force Cambridge Research Center.
There he hack occasion not only to develop in-house research
with young proteges but also to fund high-quality university
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HELMUT E. LANDSBERG
155
research. He then returned to Washington to direct the Office
of Climatology of the United States Weather Bureau (USWB), at
which position he remained until reorganization of the Weather
Bureau into the Environmental Science ServicesAciministration
(ESSA) in 1965. At that time he became head of the Environ-
mental Data Services of ESSA.
In 1967 Landsberg returned to the academic world where he
would spend the rest of his life. He joined the University of
Maryland as a research professor and concurrently held several
administrative posts. He was acting director of the Institute for
Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics and subsequently
became director of the meteorology program that evolved from
that Institute. In 1976 he retired from the university and began
his final career as a professor emeritus with no loss of intensity.
Without administrative responsibilities, he devoted more time
to students, to traveling, and to producing creative-research
results at a rate that wouIcT put most scientists in their prime to
shame.
Landsberg offered his abilities liberally and enthusiastically to
any and all who requested them, as noted by his outside commit-
ments. He was elected to membership in the National Academy
of Engineering in 1966, end was an honorary life member of the
New York Academy of Sciences. He was a fellow of the Royal
Meteorological Society, the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Meteor-
itical Society, the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and
the Washington Academy of Sciences. In addition, he was a
member of the German Meteorological Society, the American
Institute for Medical Climatology, the International Society of
Biometeorology, the MountWashington Observatory, the Sneck-
enberg Societ,v of Natural History, the Society of Sigma Xi, the
Societ,v of Sigma Pi Sigma, the Society of Sigma Gamma Epsilon,
and he was an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa.
He served as president of the WMO Commission for Special
Applications of Meteorology and Climatology from 1969 to
1978; he was a member of a WMO AdvisoryWorking Group from
1978 to 1981; and he was a member of its Commission for
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Climatology from 1981 until his death. He served the National
Academy of Engineering as a member of its Awards Committee
in 1974 and 1975. At the National Research Council (NRC) he
served on the Geophysics Research Board as chairman of the
Geophysical Predictions Panel in 1977 and 1978 and as a mem-
ber of its Panel on Energy and Climate from 1975 to 1978. For the
NRC Division of Physical Sciences he was a member of its
Climatic Impact Committee from 1972 to 1975. He served the
government as a member of the National Advisory Committee
on Oceans and Atmospheres from 1975 to 1977. He served the
universities as trustee to University Corporation for Atmospher-
ic Research (UCAR) from 1968 to 1972 and assisted the private
sector as a certified consulting meteorologist of the AMS. He
served the AMS as councillor from 1952 to 1960, as vice-presi-
dent in 1963-1964, and as chairman of the Awards Committee in
1974-1975. In support of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science he was vice-president of Section E in
1972. The AGU will remember Landsberg particularly well. He
served as vice-president, Section on Meteorology (1953-1956),
as president ofthat section (1956-1959), asvice-president ofthe
Union ~1966-1968), and finally as its president ~1968-l970).
Landsberg lover! books and often browsed in out-of-the-way
bookshops, thereby acquiring a unique and unequalled collec-
tion of rare historical books on meteorology, which he subse-
quently donated with great generosity to libraries. He was an
associate editor of the Journal of Meteorology (1950-1961), the
editor of Advances in Geophysics (1952-1977), the editor-in-chief
ofthe World Su7vey of Climatology (1964-1985), and the chairman
of the Publications Committee of the International Society of
Biometeorology ~ 1960-1985) .
For his extensive professional contributions, he was rewarded
by numerous acknowledgments. He received the Exceptional
Meritorious Service Award from the Department of Commerce
in 1960. The AMS bestowed on Landsberg their Award for
OutstanclingAchievementin Bioclimatologyin 1964, the Charles
Franklin Brooks Award for Outstanding Services to the Society
in 1972, and the Cleveland Abbe Award for Distinguished Ser-
vice to Atmospheric Sciences by an Individual in 1983. The
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HELMUT E. LANDSBERG
157
Duetsche Meteorologische Gesellschaft E.V., the German Mete-
orological Society, awarded him the Alfred Wegener-Medaille in
1980. He was the recipient of the William Bowie Mecial in 1978
from the AGU. In 1979 he received the International Meteoro-
logical Organization Prize from the WMO. The W. F. Peterson
Foundation Gold Medalwas awarded to him in 1983, and in 1985
he was honoredwith the Solco W. Tromp MemorialAwarcl by the
Enviroscience Foundation. Ultimately he was bestowed the Na-
tional Medal of Science by President Reagan in 1985.
Landsberg's scientific productivity was astounding and his
breadth of interest and involvement remarkable. He left us with
almost four hundred written published documents, including
several books, and his written contributions to collective docu-
ments from his many committee assignments would substantial-
ly augment that total. His research explorations command
numerous topics, including seismology, geography, geology,
climatology, weather forecasting, bioclimatology, urban climate,
climate history, and climate services among many others. Yet,
given the enormityofhis formal output, to most of his colleagues
and acquaintances Landsberg is remembered best as a man
whose door and mind were always open to discussion and the
exchange of icleas, en cl who was overwhelmingly supportive and
encouraging. He had the perception and serenity that unfailing-
ly lee} to meaningful solutions for the most complex of problems.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
international society
