Norman Alton Phillips: A Biographical Memoir by Dennis L. Hartmann and John Marshall.

(Harmann, D., and Marshall, J.), National Academy of Sciences, 2025.

Abstract

Norman Alton Phillips was a leading theorist during the early days of the development of weather and climate models following World War II. He participated in the creation of the first numerical weather prediction models at the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. He de- veloped the first computer model of the atmosphere’s general circulation, a forerunner of the global climate models in use today. He was an excellent teacher and mentor and led the Department of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1970 to 1974. Thereafter, at the National Weather Service, he helped develop nested regional weather prediction models and worked to incorporate newly available satellite observations into weather forecast systems.