Ragnar Fjørtoft

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Ragnar Fjørtoft
Born(1913-08-01)August 1, 1913
Kristiania, Norway
DiedMay 28, 1998(1998-05-28) (aged 84)
Oslo, Norway
NationalityNorwegian
SpouseRagnhild Nordskog
AwardsOrder of St. Olav, International Meteorological Organization Prize
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Oslo, University of Copenhagen, Institute for Advanced Study

Ragnar Fjørtoft (1 August 1913 – 28 May 1998) was an internationally recognized Norwegian meteorologist. He was part of a Princeton, New Jersey team that in 1950 performed the first successful numerical weather prediction using the ENIAC electronic computer. He was also a professor of meteorology at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

Biography

Ragnar Fjørtoft was born in Kristiania to the deaf teacher Lauritz Hansen Fjørtoft (1877–1941) and his wife Anne Birgitte Marie Schultze (1881–??). The family eventually moved to Trondheim, where Fjørtoft took his examen artium in 1933. He thereupon moved to Oslo to study natural science, with meteorology as specialization. His teacher was Halvor Solberg, who earlier had been a student of Vilhelm Bjerknes.[1]

On 29 March 1939, Fjørtoft married Ragnhild Nordskog (1918–). In the same year, he moved to

left-wing activism in Mot Dag, and was a member of the socialist students' league Sosialistisk studenterlag in Bergen.[1][3]

In 1946, Fjørtoft published a treatise on the stability of circular

Klara Dan von Neumann.[5][6] They published their work on numerical weather prediction in the periodical Tellus in November 1950.[7]

In 1951, Fjørtoft moved back to Norway, where he took a

grand doctorate at the University of Oslo on the stability of atmospheric waves.[1][8] In 1953, he moved back to Princeton, where he stayed for a year. Fjørtoft was also a professor in theoretical meteorology at the University of Copenhagen from 1950 to 1955.[1] In 1956, he joined the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.[1]

Upon leaving the University of Copenhagen in 1955, Fjørtoft was appointed director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, where he stayed until 1978. He was also Professor II at the University of Oslo from 1967 to 1983.[1]

Honors

Ragnar Fjørtoft received several decorations in his later life. In 1967, he was decorated as Knight, First Class of the

Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. He was awarded the Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Excellent Research in 1977, and the International Meteorological Organization Prize in 1991.[9] Fjørtoft died on 28 May 1998 in Oslo.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Palm, E. (2009). "Ragnar Fjørtoft". In Helle, Knut (ed.). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  2. ^
    Store norske leksikon
    (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  3. ^ Bull, Trygve (1987). Mot Dag og Erling Falk (in Norwegian) (4th ed.). Oslo: Cappelen. p. 213.
  4. ISBN 978-0-87590-423-8
    . Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  5. ^ Witman, Sarah (16 June 2017). "Meet the Computer Scientist You Should Thank For Your Smartphone's Weather App". Smithsonian. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  6. ISBN 978-0262013925. Archived from the original
    on 2012-01-27.
  7. doi:10.3402/tellusa.v2i4.8607
    .
  8. ^ a b Grammeltvedt, Arne (8 June 1998). "NEKROLOGER Ragnar Fjørtoft". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). p. 11.
  9. ^ "IMOprisen til Ragnar Fjørtoft". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). 3 June 1991. p. 10.

Further reading

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