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Joanne Simpson
Born Joanne Gerould, March 23 1923, Massachusetts

Died March 4, 2010 (age 86) Washington, DC

Known for Tropical Meteorology and Tropical Cyclone research

Spouse(s) Victor P. Starr (m.1944), Willem Malkus (m.1948), Robert Simpson (m.1965)

Children David S. Malkus, Steven W. Malkus, Karen E. Malkus

Awards Carl- Gustaf Rossby Research Medal Scientific Career Fields Meteorology

Thesis Certain features of Undisturbed and Disturbed Weather in the Trade-Wind Region (1949)

Doctoral Advisor Herbert Riehl

About
Joanne Simpson was the first woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in Meteorology, which she received from the University of Chicago. She was also the first woman president of the American Meteorological Society. Simpson received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, and worked on her post-doctoral at Dartmouth College. Simpson was a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She taught and researched meteorology at numerous universities as well as the federal government. Simpson contributed to many areas of the atmospheric sciences, particularly, in the field of tropical meteorology. She has researched hot towers, hurricanes, trade winds, air-sea interactions, and helped develop the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.

Academic
Her teaching and research career at universities includes time at University of Chicago, New York University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, UCLA, the Environmental Satellite Services Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Virginia.

Research
In 1958 Malkus collaborated with Herbert Riehl calculated the average moist static energy and how it varied vertically throughout the atmosphere. They noted that at altitudes up to approximately 750 hPa the moist static energy decreased with height. Above 750 hPa, the moist static energy increased with height which had neither been observed or explained before. Riehl and Malkus realized that this must be due to moist convection that started near the surface that continued rising relatively adiabatically to near 50,000 feet (15,000 m). They called these clouds "undiluted chimneys" but they would later be commonly referred to as hot towers. They estimated that it would take less than 5,000 of these towers daily throughout the tropics to result in the moist static energy profile they observed. By 1966 she became the director of Project Stormfury while chief of the Experimental Meteorology Branch of the Environment Satellite Services Administration's Institute for Atmospheric Sciences. She eventually became NASA's lead weather researcher and authored or co-authored over 190 articles.