Charney, Jule Gregory (1917-1981)

US meteorologist. Renowned for his use of computers to generate forecasts (numerical weather), his mathematical models to describe weather and climate, and his theories of the instability of atmospheric pressure. In Princeton, New Jersey between 1948-56, he and others pioneered the first computer-generated weather forecast using the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator).

He was born in San Francisco, the son of Russian immigrants. Following his doctorate, he studied with the famous Carl-Gustaf Rossby before travelling to the University of Oslo in Norway as a National Research Fellow. This success prompted his establishing a Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit in Maryland, which generated daily predictions of gross climate and weather patterns. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1956-81) he chaired the Committee on International Meteorological Cooperation and helped organize the Global Atmospheric Research Program; their findings are expected to significantly advance understanding of the atmosphere.

He is remembered as the ‘father of modern meteorology’.