Jacob Bjerknes

Jacob Bjerknes
Born(1897-11-02)2 November 1897
Stockholm, Sweden
Died7 July 1975(1975-07-07) (aged 77)
Los Angeles, United States
NationalityNorwegian / American
CitizenshipNorwegian / American
Known forENSO
Norwegian cyclone model
Weather forecasting
AwardsNational Medal of Science (1966)
Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal (1960)
International Meteorological Organization Prize (1959)
Guggenheim Fellowship (1957)
William Bowie Medal (1945)
Symons Gold Medal (1940)
Vega Medal (1939)
Scientific career
FieldsMeteorologist
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Jacob Bjerknes with his father Vilhelm Bjerknes, 1897
Jacob and his wife Hedvig Bjerknes, née Borthen, Tivoli, Denmark, 1929

Jacob Aall Bonnevie Bjerknes (/ˈjɑːkəb ˈbjɜːrknɪs/ YAH-kəb BYURK-niss, Norwegian: [ˈjɑ̀ːkɔb ˈbjæ̂rkneːs]; 2 November 1897 – 7 July 1975) was a meteorologist.[1][2] He is known for his key paper in which he pointed the dynamics of the polar front, mechanism for north-south heat transport and for which he was also awarded a doctorate from the University of Oslo.[3]

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, he was the son of the Norwegian meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes, one of the pioneers of modern weather forecasting.[4] He helped develop the Norwegian cyclone model. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Oslo in 1924. Bjerknes was part of the team that made the first crossing of the Arctic in the airship Norge. During WWII, he helped the US with the planning of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. He also helped gain an understanding of the weather phenomenon El Niño.

  1. ^ Jacob Bjerknes - the Synthesizer Archived 15 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine (University of Washington)
  2. ^ Jacob Bjerknes (Norsk biografisk leksikon)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).