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Summary: The Institute and its role in the development of climate research at the University of
Maryland
Alan J. Faller, Research Professor Emeritus, IPST, University of Maryland
(March 2010)
1. Introduction
The Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST) was established in 1976 as a
merger of the Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics (IFDAM) and the
Institute for Molecular Physics. Both Institutes had been established at the University of
Maryland shortly after World War II. This article describes how IFDAM also became the
origin of major research programs in meteorology culminating in the establishment of a
Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Science at the University of Maryland with an
emphasis on climate research.
2. Background
In the 1950s a group of meteorologists working at Princeton University under the
supervision of mathematician John von Neumann had produced the first large-scale
numerical model of the atmosphere using the famous Eniac computer. This group
included such notable scholars as Jule Charney, Norman Phillips, George Platzman,
George Cressmman, and Joseph Smagorinsky. When this unit disbanded in the mid
1950s, Charney and Philips went to M.I.T., Platzman returned to the University of
Chicago, and Cressman became director of the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction unit
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