For a number of years Dr. Thomson has distinguished himself in diverse professional advisory responsibilities. These include at the Undersecretary level in the Department of Defense, at Lawrence Livermore and Argonne National Laboratories, Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory, the National Academy of Science, and on several UCAR and NCAR evaluation committees and advisory panels. At a number of UCAR-member universities he has also assisted faculty colleagues as they evaluated their academic programs. As a result of these various activities, as well as his current university administrative responsibilities, the focus of Dr. Thomson's teaching, research and service interests has been shifting to the problems of communicating effectively to the public and government the role modern meteorology should have in our rapidly changing, and highly environmentally sensitive society. Consequently, the courses he now teaches focus strongly on issues of professionalism and ethics, communications methods and technology, meteorological factors in health, personal and community defense in response to large chemical or nuclear accidents (or terrorism), and the role of meteorology in implementation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. It is the integral of such unique experiences and perspective that he would contribute to UCAR's Board of Trustees.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Title/Position: Professor and Head, Department of Meteorology
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Education:
B.S., Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1963
M.S., Meteorology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1964
Ph.D., Meteorology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1968
Area Of Specialty:
Surface-based remote sensing, acoustical and electromagnetic propagation, science and
technology policy and ethics
Research/Academic Experience:
1968-69, Deutscher Akademisher Austauschdienst Post-Doctoral Fellow, U of Hamburg, Ger.
1969-70, Visit. Asst. Prof., Dept. of Meteorology, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
1970-72, Assistant Professor, Department of Meteorology, Penn State U.
Fall 1972, Visiting Scientist, Research Aviation Facility, ATD, NCAR
1972-78, Associate Professor, Department of Meteorology, Penn State U.
1977-78, Sabbatical Leave, Visit. Scientist, Risoe Nat'l. Laboratory, Denmark
1978-present, Prof. of Meteorology & Graduate Prog. in Acoustics, Penn State U.
1986, G.J. Haltiner Professor of Meteorology, Naval Postgrad. School, Monterey
1989-91, IPA assignment to Office of Chief of Naval Research
1992-present, Head, Department of Meteorology, Penn State U.
Administrative Experience:
1985-95, Member and Chair (87-95) University of Chicago Rev. Committee for
Environmental Research Div., Argonne National Lab.
1992-95, Board of Directors, Applied Research Lab., Penn State Univ.
1992-present, Advisory Board, Earth System Science Center, Penn State Univ.
1995-present, Member, Director's Adv. Comm., Lawrence Livermore Nat'l. Lab.
1995-present, Chair, External Adv. Comm., Earth and Environmental Sciences
Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
1997 & 1998, "TARA" Advisory Committees to Undersec. for Defense (DDR&E)
UCAR Participation:
1971-77, NCAR Adv. Panel (Chair, 73-76) for Research Aviation Facility
1976 and 81, UCAR SPEC's for Research Aviation and Systems Facilities
1983, NCAR Summer Colloquium on Teaching of Meteorological Instrumentation
1984-85, UCAR Membership Committee
1989-90, UCAR/AMS Committee for Study of Observational Systems
1992-96, NCAR Observing Facilities Advisory Panel (Chair, 1996)
1994-present, UCAR Members' Representative from Penn State U.
Additional Information:
Research Advisor during last 28 years to 32 M.S. and 14 Ph.D. graduates in
meteorology and acoustics
1992-93, Member, Boundary Layer Research Assessment Group, Naval Studies
Board, National Academy of Sciences
Assoc. Editor, 1989-92, J. Atmos. & Oceanic Tech., 1978-83, J. of Applied Meteo.
Academic Program Review Committees: 1998--Aerospace Eng. at Penn State U., 1998--School of Meteorology, Univ. of Oklahoma, 1994--Dept. of Atmos.
Sciences, Colorado State Univ., 1992--Meteorology at Naval Postgraduate School, 1989--Atmospheric Sciences at Univ. of Arizona
What do you see as the most challenging opportunities facing UCAR in the years ahead and what interests, experiences and/or strengths do you have that you feel can contribute to addressing those challenges and opportunities?
Relations between the community of UCAR member universities and the UCAR/NCAR corporate organization might be viewed as a marriage of two rather strong minded persons. Such marriages are unlikely to alter the fundamental character of either partner. What is important is that the partnership (UNIV/UCAR) creates a body which is both different from and greater than the sum of its parts. It appears to me that the UNIV/UCAR partnership is likely in the next few years to be undergoing substantial change. Most university academic programs are currently attempting to work through revolutionary changes in their student bodies, internal and extramural finances, and program educational objectives. Many aspects of basic research as it has been practiced for decades in our universities and at most of our national laboratories, including NCAR, are being seriously debated both within the universities and in society at large. Thus, like the universities, UCAR/NCAR is facing a considerable challenge. In an external environment of rapidly changing societal priorities, funding sources and expectations, UCAR/NCAR must attempt to maintain its position as a pre-eminent, community-representing (and serving), organization and national laboratory for the atmospheric sciences.
Because the UCAR-member universities and UCAR/NCAR are competing to some extent for the same, and increasingly limited, resources, some tension is almost unavoidable. It is, I believe, the UCAR Board of Trustees (BOT) which should accept responsibility for ensuring that the UNIV/UCAR marriage is continued with appropriate respect for each partner's goals, activities and contributions to the nation's science and education programs. Although support should always be ready for creative and outstanding ideas, the primary purpose of the BOT should not be, simply, to endorse and support UCAR/NCAR initiatives and contracts with the NSF. Rather the BOT should serve up front as the organizational forum for debating appropriate priorities and strategies for the atmospheric sciences community's areas of science focus, funding investment priorities and strategies, and development of substantially more proactive relations between our community, and the public and government. For example, an area needing immediate and significantly greater attention is that of compiling information on, and then explaining clearly to the public the "value of weather." For some years NCAR has been working in this area but it appears that a much larger, community-wide effort is needed.
In standing for election to the BOT, I am offering, to the best of my ability, to apply my experience as a university educator and administrator, and as a long-term rather active advisor to diverse national science programs and organizations, to the challenge of defining new ways for UCAR/NCAR to better serve both its UCAR corporate members and the public from whom it ultimately derives its support. Both at and away from Penn State I've often heard comments to the effect that UCAR is a Colorado-centered organization with an office in Washington. I would like to see the BOT working with UCAR on problems and challenges in such a way that this perception would soon be without merit. UCAR should be a corporate member- and atmospheric sciences community-oriented organization whose program and activities contribute positively not only to the advancement of the atmospheric sciences generally but also to each of us in personally meaningful as well as professionally abstract ways.