Chair In Meteorology At Canterbury Urged

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 15

Chair In Meteorology At Canterbury Urged

A chair in meteoeaioc* at the University of Canterbury wsfa suggested yestetxiay by Dr. A. Thomson, Sanner dtaeotar of the Meteorotooiail Service of Canada. The chaar should eventually be part of a department of geophysics, covering studies in seistnotogy, oceanography, glaciology, and ionosphere physics as well as meteorology, Dr. Thomson said in Cthristdhurch. "The science of meteorology is of growing importance, and I think the time is not fair off when you will find the need for chains in

the subject at ail your major untwravties,** said Dr. Thomson. “But Canterbury is the obvious place to start because of toe great work being done by Dr. C. Ellyett and his associates m the physics department of the university, and —in the related field of ionosphere research—by the staff of the Geophysical Observtaory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research," said Dr. Thomson. "Important developments in geophysics, including the establishment of chairs in meteorology, have been made over recent years at the McGill, Toronto, and British Columbia universities in Canada,” he said, “You in New Zealand have an extraordinarily large responsibility in meteorology, in that you can secure data from the Southern Hemisphere and especially from the South Pacific, where data are scarce. Particuar fields in which a greater New Zealand contribution would be welcome are upper-air observations and meteorological research. You are engaged in a certain amount of research, but the scope might be extended a great deal. The establishment of university chairs would, be a big advance,” he said. Dr. Thomson was head of the Canadian meteorological service for 15 years until his retirement in 1961. He still represents Canada on the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, and is chairman of the committee on meteorology within the Canadian Committee of Geodesy and Geophysics. From 1922 until 1930 he was director of the Mulinu'u Observatory in Apia, Western Samoa, first for the Carnegie Institution, of Washington and then, when New Zealand took responsibility for the observatory, for the New Zealand Meteorological Service.