Goddard Scientist Honored by The World Meteorological Organization

NASA research scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson has been awarded the prestigious International
Meteorological Organization Prize by the Executive Council of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the first woman ever to win this prize.

Simpson, internationally acclaimed for her 54 years of pioneering work on cloud modeling, observational experiments on convective cloud systems and hurricane research, is being honored for her role as a leading participant in the aircraft aspects of several WMO Global Atmospheric Research Programme (GARP) experiments and for helping to establish a basic understanding of tropical circulation and heat balance.

The IMO Prize originates from WMO’s predecessor body, the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), founded in 1873. The award is presented annually and consists of a gold medal, a sum of money and an official citation.

Throughout her professional life Simpson has served as a mentor and role model for young scientists, particularly women. In 2001, the American Meteorological Society honored Simpson with the Charles F. Anderson Award in recognition of her outstanding and extraordinary contributions to the promotion of educational outreach, educational service, and diversity in the AMS and broader communities.

Through her original ideas and efforts, Simpson shepherded NASA’s development of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite from its inception through its launch as the first rain radar instrument in space. This mission ranks among her greatest achievements and will speed progress in modeling and predicting weather and climate resulting in improved forecasting of short-term climate variability.

Simpson is currently chief scientist for Meteorology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Previously, she served as the project scientist for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Observatory.

Simpson came to Goddard in 1979 as head of the Severe Storms Branch in Goddard’s Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences. The research consisted of combined modeling and observations of severe storm systems, both in the tropics and mid-latitudes, using aircraft as well as satellite data. In 1986, she became TRMM project scientist and also served as the chief scientist for the Laboratory for Atmospheres. She became chief scientist for Meteorology in the Earth Sciences Directorate in 1988 and was selected as the first Goddard Senior Fellow in 1988.

Simpson is the first woman to ever receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, which she obtained at the University of Chicago in 1949.

Among the other positions she has held are: Assistant Professor of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology, 1949-1951; Meteorologist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1951-1960; Professor of Meteorology, University of California at Los Angeles, 1960-1964; Director, Experimental Meteorology Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1964-1974; and Corcoran Professor of Environmental Science, University of Virginia, 1974-1981.

Simpson is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, and was made a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 1968 and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1994. She has held numerous positions within the American Meteorological Society, including two terms as Councilor in the 1970’s, Commissioner of Scientific and Technological Activities, 1981-1987, President in 1989, and Publications Commissioner, 1992 to 1988.

Among the awards that Simpson has received are the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1954, the American Meteorological Society Meisinger Award in 1962 and the C.F. Brooks Award in 1992. She is the 1983 recipient of the Rossby Research Medal, the highest award of the American Meteorological Society, and received Goddard’s first Nordberg Award for Earth Sciences in 1994.

She received the Department of Commerce Gold Medal in 1972, the Professional Achievement Award of the University of Chicago Alumni in 1975 and 1992. She received the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.

Simpson’s NASA awards include a NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award in 1982 and NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal presented in 1998 for her exceptional leadership in the atmospheric sciences culminating in the successful launching and performance of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite.

Simpson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988. She has been listed in Who’s Who of American Women since 1972 and in Who’s Who in America since 1980. She was elected an Honorary Member of the American Meteorological Society in 1995 and an Honorary Member of the Royal Meteorological Society of Great Britain in 1999.

Throughout her career, Dr. Simpson has been instrumental in promoting diversity within the Society and the greater scientific community and for mentoring young professionals and guiding them toward successful careers. She was a Charter member of the AMS Board on Women and Minorities in the early 1970’s.

Simpson, a resident of Washington, D.C., was born in Boston in 1923 and spent her childhood in Cambridge, Mass. and Cape Cod. She met her husband, Dr. Robert H. Simpson, when she was a consultant for his National Hurricane Research Project. They have been married 38 years and have had many adventures with their combined families of five children, six grandchildren and two cats.