Philip Duncan Thompson Papers

These papers document the career of Philip Duncan Thompson (1922-1994), whose research focused on the large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere, numerical weather prediction, and the statistical theory of hydrodynamic turbulence. The materials cover his career as a regular officer in the United States Air Force in meteorology beginning in World War II, continuing at the Institute for Advanced Study's Electronic Computer Project, the Air Force Cambridge Research Labs, the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit, MIT, and the University of Stockholm. Much of the collection documents his critical administrative work for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, where he served in many directorial positions. The papers consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, speeches and lectures, articles and manuscript drafts, teaching materials, notes and calculations, clippings, awards, printed matter, photographs, oral histories, and other materials.