NORMAN PHILLIPS IS a theoretical meteorologist who pioneered the use of numerical methods for the prediction of weather and climate changes. His influential studies led to the first computer models of weather and climate, as well as to an understanding of the general circulation of the atmosphere, including the transports of heat and moisture that determine the Earths climate. His 1955 model is generally regarded as a ground-breaking device that helped to win scientific skepticism in reproducing the patterns of wind and pressure of the entire atmosphere within a computer model.

Phillips received his B.S. from the University of Chicago in 1947 and his Ph.D. in 1951. He was the first to show, with a simple general circulation model, that weather prediction with numerical models was ...