Ronald B. Smith
Damon Wells Professor of Geology and Geophysics
Ronald Smith, BAE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, you are a titan in the field of dynamic meteorology. You are also one of the grand figures in science at Yale where, upon your retirement this June, you will have been a professor for forty-four years.
Your scientific career has centered on the problem of how mountains influence the winds that attempt to flow above and around them. How does a high topography influence the pattern of rainfall in the surrounding lands? What are the dynamics of uplift, condensation, and precipitation? Many of your field projects addressed these questions in far-flung locations: Mount Blanc in the French Alps, St. Vincent and Dominica in the Lesser Antilles, the Sierra Nevada, and New Zealand. Your own certification as a pilot aided these studies, and they form the sustaining vortex of your contributions to atmospheric science.
A number of other research topics have spun out from your central interests. As a young professor, you made major contributions to the nonlinear theory of rock deformation. In mid-career you pioneered the use of stable-isotope geochemistry in meteorological research, and made important contributions in the applications of satellite remote-sensing data. Your imagination bridged mathematical theory and field measurements, fueling interdisciplinary collaboration. You founded the Center for Earth Observation at Yale, collaborating with other Yale Faculty of Arts and Science departments, Yale’s Institute for Biospheric Studies, and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
At last count you had 117 publications listed in the Web of Science, and have served as Lead or Mission Scientist on numerous meteorological field projects. As a long-standing Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, you have been honored with the Society’s Mountain Meteorology Award and their Jules Charney Award.
Not only a great researcher, you have been a lynchpin of Yale’s teaching in environmental and climate science, mentoring dozens of developing researchers in meteorology—graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduates alike—many of them now distinguished in their fields. For as long as anyone can remember, you have taught the course on atmospheres, ocean and climate—an erstwhile favorite of the Yale sailing team—which now serves as a core-course in Yale’s interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Major. You also originated the course “Observing Earth From Space,” exposing all levels of students to hands-on use of remote-sensing data. More lately you have taught courses in sustainable energy and wind power in support of Yale’s Energy Studies certificate program.
In 2012, in honor of your skills as a teacher, Yale College awarded you the Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize for the teacher who “has given the most time, energy and effective effort” to educating undergraduates, bringing honor to yourself and pride to the department. As you retire, your colleagues cheer that you will have more time to yourself, but know they will be scrambling to fill your shoes for a long time to come.