Margaret Smagorinsky

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Margaret Smagorinsky (23 December 1915 – 14 November 2011) was an American statistician, computer programmer, and pioneering weather technologist.[1] She was the first female statistician hired by the US Weather Bureau and the wife of meteorologist Joseph Smagorinsky.[2]

Margaret Smagorinsky
Born
Margaret F Knoepfel

(1915-12-23)December 23, 1915
DiedNovember 14, 2011(2011-11-14) (aged 95)
Hillsborough, NJ, United States
Alma materBrooklyn College
University of Virginia
New York University
SpouseJoseph Smagorinsky
Scientific career
FieldsMeteorology
InstitutionsRailroad Retirement Board
Princeton University

Early life

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Smagorinsky was born in Brooklyn, New York as the second of four daughters of Anne and George Knoepfel. She attended Bay Ridge High School in Brooklyn.[3]

Smagorinsky loved learning from an early age and was the first member of her family to attend college when she attended Brooklyn College.[4] She graduated at age 19 with a degree in mathematics, and taught school in a one-room schoolhouse in Ashland, N.Y. for four years.[4]

Statistics career

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Smagorinsky took the civil service exam for a statistical clerk in the US. She was offered a job at the Railroad Retirement Board in Washington, D.C., where she worked as a statistician processing paperwork for employees looking to enter the civil service.

At age 26, Smagorinsky joined the Weather Bureau,[4] where she was the first woman statistician.[5] In 1942, the Washington Post-Herald wrote about her as the first female professional statistician in the department.[4] After being sent to New York University for additional coursework,[6] she met Joseph Smagorinsky in a graduate statistics course. He was 8 years her junior, and they married on May 29, 1948.[3]

Smagorinsky had five children: Anne, Peter, Teresa, Julia, and Frederick, and left full-time government employment after her first child was born in 1951.[citation needed]

Smagorinsky, in supporting her husband's work, processed data and programmed the ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.[7] In April 1950, a group of meteorologists at New Jersey's Institute for Advanced Study successfully produced the first weather forecast using the ENIAC and numerical prediction techniques.[8][9] Smagorinsky is cited as a programmer of computers for 5-day weather forecast models created by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.[7]

Publications

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  • The Regalia of Princeton University, Pomp, Circumstance, and Accoutrements of Academia.[1]
  • The Tigers of Princeton University: A Campus Safari and Photo Essay (1992)[10]
  • Some Legends and Lore of Princeton University: Historical Sketches (Little Books Series)[11]

References

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  1. ^ Witman, Sarah (2017-06-16). "The Unheralded Contributions of Klara Dan von Neumann". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  2. ^ Lewis, John M. (2008). "SMAGORINSKY'S GFDL: Building the Team". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 89 (9): 1339–1353. doi:10.1175/2008BAMS2599.1. ISSN 0003-0007. JSTOR 26220901. S2CID 122893031.
  3. ^ a b "Obituary of Margaret Smagorinsky | The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home". matherhodge.com. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  4. ^ a b c d Kristine, Harper; Doel, Ronald (2006-01-02). "American Meteorological Society University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Tape Recorded Interview Project -- Interview of Margaret Smagorinsky". American Meteorological Society University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  5. ^ "Weather Bureau's 1st girl statistician hails from Boro". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1943-07-11. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
  6. ^ New dictionary of scientific biography. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons/Thomson Gale. 2008. p. 470. ISBN 978-0-684-31320-7.
  7. ^ a b Smagorjnsky, Joseph (1983-01-01), Saltzman, Barry (ed.), "The Beginnings of Numerical Weather Prediction and General Circulation Modeling: Early Recollections", Advances in Geophysics, Theory of Climate, vol. 25, Elsevier, pp. 3–37, retrieved 2023-03-05
  8. ^ Nebeker, Frederik (1995-05-18). Calculating the Weather: Meteorology in the 20th Century. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-052841-0.
  9. ^ Dyson, George (2012). Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. Pantheon Books. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-375-42277-5.
  10. ^ Smagorinsky, Margaret; Einthoven, Wink (1992-01-01). The Tigers of Princeton University: A Campus Safari and Photo Essay. Office of Communications/Publications, Princeton University.
  11. ^ Smagorinsky, Margaret (1993-01-01). Some Legends and Lore of Princeton University: Historical Sketches. Office of Communications/Publications, Princeton University.