Institute of Atmospheric Physics Director Reflects on 40 Years at UA

Tina Alvarez
Aug. 18, 2000




When Benjamin Herman came to the University of Arizona's Institute of Atmospheric Physics as a graduate student, it was a young department leaning more toward atmospheric physics than conventional meteorology.

"I came with the understanding that my wife and I would be here long enough to get my degree and we'd move back East," Herman said. "Richard Kassander, the first department head, offered me a job when I finished and so we said we'd stay for two or three years and move on."

Well, 40 years later, Herman, the director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, is still here.

The changes he's experienced are many. He recalled the student population was 11,000 at that time and now it's 35,000. The graduate program in the Atmospheric Sciences had five students, was housed in a Quonset hut that is now the site of the UA Science Library and he was the first to graduate with a doctorate degree.

It was during this time atmospheric sciences was instrumental in the formation of the computer science center. Herman said the department's research program funded the original computer after convincing the president they needed one. The computer was an IBM 650 with a 2000 byte memory, housed in the Engineering Building. It took up a whole floor.

Herman's doctoral thesis was calculating the polarization of sunlight on the planet Jupiter. Herman ran the computer between midnight and 4 a.m. using a radiative transfer program.

"I just remember night after night, running that program, storing results on tape, going back the next night and running it some more," Herman said. "We thought it was tremendously fast, but it took many, many hours to run off a program that today could run in less than a minute."

In those days, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics was one of the biggest research groups on campus. The main research project they were working on then was in the area of cloud seeding, with funding secured by an Arizona senator.

Herman said the project's goal was to see if rainfall in the desert could be increased by cloud seeding.

"The project was one of the best cloud seeding programs in the world, very scientifically sound," said Herman "The results were very inconclusive. There was some slight increase in rainfall, but statistically it was not significant. To this day, there are still debates over the effectiveness of cloud seeding."

How does he view the progress made from then to now?

"If you look back on it you see the evolution of things. It's remarkable, but while it's occurring it doesn't phase you too much. It's just another development."

In his spare time Herman grows irises, testing them for one of the largest growers in the world to see how they'll respond to various climates. He said between that, bowling, and work, he keeps busy.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the University. It's a wonderful University," he said. "I obviously feel that way as I am still here."

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