Margaret Smagorinsky (23 December 1915 – 14 November 2011) was an American statistician, computer programmer, and pioneering weather technologist.[1] She was the first female statistician hired by the US Weather Bureau and the wife of meteorologist Joseph Smagorinsky.[2]
Margaret Smagorinsky | |
|---|---|
| Born | Margaret F Knoepfel December 23, 1915 |
| Died | November 14, 2011 (aged 95) Hillsborough, NJ, United States |
| Alma mater | Brooklyn College University of Virginia New York University |
| Spouse | Joseph Smagorinsky |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Meteorology |
| Institutions | Railroad Retirement Board Princeton University |
Early life
editSmagorinsky was born in Brooklyn, New York as the second of four daughters of Anne and George Knoepfel. She attended Bay Ridge High School in Brooklyn.[3]
Smagorinsky loved learning from an early age and was the first member of her family to attend college when she attended Brooklyn College.[4] She graduated at age 19 with a degree in mathematics, and taught school in a one-room schoolhouse in Ashland, N.Y. for four years.[4]
Statistics career
editSmagorinsky took the civil service exam for a statistical clerk in the US. She was offered a job at the Railroad Retirement Board in Washington, D.C., where she worked as a statistician processing paperwork for employees looking to enter the civil service.
At age 26, Smagorinsky joined the Weather Bureau,[4] where she was the first woman statistician.[5] In 1942, the Washington Post-Herald wrote about her as the first female professional statistician in the department.[4] After being sent to New York University for additional coursework,[6] she met Joseph Smagorinsky in a graduate statistics course. He was 8 years her junior, and they married on May 29, 1948.[3]
Smagorinsky had five children: Anne, Peter, Teresa, Julia, and Frederick, and left full-time government employment after her first child was born in 1951.[citation needed]
Smagorinsky, in supporting her husband's work, processed data and programmed the ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.[7] In April 1950, a group of meteorologists at New Jersey's Institute for Advanced Study successfully produced the first weather forecast using the ENIAC and numerical prediction techniques.[8][9] Smagorinsky is cited as a programmer of computers for 5-day weather forecast models created by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.[7]
Publications
editReferences
edit- ^ Witman, Sarah (2017-06-16). "The Unheralded Contributions of Klara Dan von Neumann". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
- ^ Lewis, John M. (2008). "SMAGORINSKY'S GFDL: Building the Team". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 89 (9): 1339–1353. doi:10.1175/2008BAMS2599.1. ISSN 0003-0007. JSTOR 26220901. S2CID 122893031.
- ^ a b "Obituary of Margaret Smagorinsky | The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home". matherhodge.com. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
- ^ a b c d Kristine, Harper; Doel, Ronald (2006-01-02). "American Meteorological Society University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Tape Recorded Interview Project -- Interview of Margaret Smagorinsky". American Meteorological Society University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
- ^ "Weather Bureau's 1st girl statistician hails from Boro". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1943-07-11. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
- ^ New dictionary of scientific biography. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons/Thomson Gale. 2008. p. 470. ISBN 978-0-684-31320-7.
- ^ a b Smagorjnsky, Joseph (1983-01-01), Saltzman, Barry (ed.), "The Beginnings of Numerical Weather Prediction and General Circulation Modeling: Early Recollections", Advances in Geophysics, Theory of Climate, vol. 25, Elsevier, pp. 3–37, retrieved 2023-03-05
- ^ Nebeker, Frederik (1995-05-18). Calculating the Weather: Meteorology in the 20th Century. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-052841-0.
- ^ Dyson, George (2012). Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. Pantheon Books. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-375-42277-5.
- ^ Smagorinsky, Margaret; Einthoven, Wink (1992-01-01). The Tigers of Princeton University: A Campus Safari and Photo Essay. Office of Communications/Publications, Princeton University.
- ^ Smagorinsky, Margaret (1993-01-01). Some Legends and Lore of Princeton University: Historical Sketches. Office of Communications/Publications, Princeton University.