Alfred H. Thiessen was born in Troy, New York. He earned a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University in 1898. His service in the Weather Bureau began at Pittsburgh as observer on July 1, 1898. He subsequently was assigned to Helena, Washington, Point Reyes and Manteo as assistant, and to Mount Weather, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, Portland, Baltimore, and Denver as official in charge. He resigned from the Weather Bureau on December 11, 1920, to accept a commission as Captain in the Regular Army. He left active service, as a major, and was reappointed at the Central Office of the Weather Bureau on March 17, 1941. He retired on April 30, 1942.
His best known work (1911) dealt with the description of weather prediction with a geometric method for dividing land areas, that although known from Dirichlet Tessellation (1850) and the Voronoi Diagram (1908), apparently had never been used in meteorology for interpolation of measurements. The synonyms Thiessen polygons or Thiessen method have become established for this application.
The Alfred H. Thiessen photograph collection contains personal photos of family history and travel. Some images relate to his work with the Weather Bureau or the Army.
By folder and subject.
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Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Purchased from Mrs. Hudson’s Fine Books and Paper in 2002.
Processed by Photo Archives Staff.