A pioneer in polar-science research, Norbert Untersteiner was born on February 24, 1926 in Merano, Italy, but grew up in Salzburg, Austria. He studied physics at the University of Innsbruk and received his PhD in 1950. He first came to the University of Washington in 1957 as scientific leader of Ice Station Alpha, one of two floating stations in the Arctic Ocean during that time. He then returned to teach in Vienna. In 1962 Untersteiner returned to the University of Washington as a faculty member, becoming a professor of atmospheric science and geophysics in 1967. He developed the thermodynamic sea-ice model in 1963 which he later extended with Gary Maykut, still used by scientists today. In 1968 he established the University's snow and ice graduate curriculum. In 1969 he helped to develop and later lead the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX), which became the template for all subsequent fieldwork in the Arctic. After AIDJEX ended in 1978, the University of Washington formed the Polar Science Center, which later became part of its Applied Physics Laboratory. Untersteiner worked as the scientific advisor for arctic and polar affairs at the Office of Naval Research in 1978, then director of the Ocean Programs Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration two years later. He returned to the University of Washington in 1981 where he directed the Polar Science Center until 1988. There he helped to establish the International Arctic Buoy Program, designed for long-term climate monitoring. He chaired the department of atmospheric science from 1988 to 1997. He then moved to the University of Alaska Fairbanks until 2005. Untersteiner died in Seattle on March 14, 2012.
Sources: "Norbert Untersteiner" in Physics Today, 2012, https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/PT.3.1615
"UW's Norbert Untersteiner was pioneer in polar-science research" in The Seattle Times, 22 March 2012, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/uws-norbert-untersteiner-was-pioneer-in-polar-science-research/
Arranged in 2 series:
Correspondence, reports, articles, meeting minutes, and notes from a University of Washington professor of atmospheric sciences. Materials include Project Husky files, including scientific and technical reports.
No restrictions on access.
Status of creator's copyrights is unknown; restrictions may exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Users are responsible for researching copyright status before use.
Received from Amy Trost, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences, 2014-06-30.
Access restricted: items should be screened for sensitive information
Access restricted: items should be screened for sensitive information
Access restricted: items should be screened for sensitive information
Access restricted: items should be screened for sensitive information
Access restricted: items should be screened for sensitive information
Access restricted: items should be screened for sensitive information
Access restricted: items should be screened for sensitive information
Include newsletters, correspondence, and reports
Project Husky was a series of studies conducted from 1958-1968 under government contract
Research includes: heat and mass budget of arctic sea ice, crystallography and physics of arctic ice, sea ice drift, micrometeorology, radiation, atmospheric chemistry, and arctic oceanography