The life and work of Joanne Simpson (1923-2010) provides an opportunity to say something new about women’s history and the history of science. She was the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in meteorology. Her path to the top was tortuous, multifaceted, and surprisingly complex – an 86-year rollercoaster ride of passion, soaring intellect, and gritty determination to succeed in a man’s world at all cost and to blaze a trail for other women to follow. Joanne managed to soar -- like a hot tower Cb -- above all adversity and established the fundamental importance of tropical clouds as the drivers of the global circulation. She led large airborne observing projects, built computerized cloud models, and participated in experimental seeding of hurricanes and clouds. Her career culminated at NASA, where her most significant work, she said, was as project scientist for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, a satellite-based program launched in 1997 that employed radar and microwave imaging to unravel the dynamics of the tropics, which is home to up to half of the world’s people.

Given her many accomplishments, what is currently known about Joanne is not close to what should be known about her. I was told by her closest associates that this book gave them the opportunity to assemble all the pieces of her life they had come to know (and some they never knew) into a coherent and compelling story of the mentor they loved and respected. This talk provides a deep dive into Joanne’s life to situate her story.

James Rodger (Jim) Fleming is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, Emeritus, at Colby College. He earned a B.S. in astronomy from Pennsylvania State University, an M.S. in atmospheric science from Colorado State University, and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University. His engagement with public policy includes frequent media appearances, writing and reviewing for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, testimony before Congressional committees, consultations with the General Accountability Office, and service on two National Academies of Sciences study panels: on Earth Observations from Space (2007), and Climate Intervention (2015). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. He is the series editor of Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology and the author of numerous articles and the following books: Meteorology in America (Johns Hopkins, 1990), Historical Perspectives on Climate Change (Oxford, 1998), The Callendar Effect (American Meteorological Society, 2007), Fixing the Sky (Columbia, 2010), Inventing Atmospheric Science (MIT, 2016), and FIRST WOMAN: Joanne Simpson and the Tropical Atmosphere (Oxford, 2020).