John Latham (physicist)

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For other people with the same name, see John Latham (disambiguation).
Prof.

Latham
John
Born(1937-07-21)21 July 1937
Frodsham (Cheshire)
Died27 April 2021(2021-04-27) (aged 83)
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipBritish
EducationPhysics
Alma materImperial College London
Known forCloud and thunderstorm electrification (temperature gradient theory); marine cloud brightening (MCB)
Spouse(s)Ann Bromley
ChildrenRob, Mike, David, Rebecca
Scientific career
FieldsClimate Physics
InstitutionsUmist, Manchester University, NCAR Boulder Colorado
Doctoral advisorJohn (BJ) Mason

John Latham (21 July 1937 – 27 April 2021) was a British physicist and professor emeritus at the University of Manchester, known for his work on atmospheric electricity and, later in his career, climate engineering.

Latham obtained a PhD on thunderstorm electrification from Imperial College London, where he was supervised by John Mason. In 1961, he moved to Umist, now part of Manchester University, to take up a lectureship and founded the Atmospheric Physics research group.[1] In 1988, he was hired as a senior research associate in ESSL/MMM[2] at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado.[3]

Latham is most known for his work on thunderstorm electrification[4] and marine cloud brightening,[5] a form of geoengineering which relies on seawater sprayed from ships. In collaboration with Stephen Salter he developed a scheme involving Flettner vessels.

He supervised over 25 doctoral students,[1] the first of whom was David Stow.[6]

Latham was also a talented writer. He published six collections of poetry[7] and had radio plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[8]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Our History (Centre for Atmospheric Science – The University of Manchester)". www.cas.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  2. ^ "NCAR scientist is namesake of new British lab | NCAR & UCAR News".
  3. ^ "Carcanet Press – John Latham". www.carcanet.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  4. ^ Illingworth, A. J.; Latham, J. (April 1977). "Calculations of electric field growth, field structure and charge distributions in thunderstorms". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 103 (436): 281–295. doi:10.1002/qj.49710343606. ISSN 0035-9009.
  5. ^ Latham, John (2002). "Amelioration of Global Warming by Controlled Enhancement of the Albedo and Longevity of Low-Level Maritime Clouds". Atmos. Sci. Letters. doi:10.1006/Asle.2002.0048
  6. ^ "Physics Tree - David Stow".
  7. ^ Alan Gadian (30 May 2021). "John Latham obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  8. ^ "John Latham – Comma Press". commapress.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-07.


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