John Latham (physicist)

John Latham (21 July 1937 – 27 April 2021) was a British physicist and professor emeritus at the University of Manchester, known for his work on atmospheric electricity and, later in his career, climate engineering.

For other people with the same name, see John Latham (disambiguation).

Prof.

Latham
John
Born(1937-07-21)21 July 1937
Frodsham (Cheshire)
Died27 April 2021(2021-04-27) (aged 83)
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipBritish
EducationPhysics
Alma materImperial College London
Known forCloud and thunderstorm electrification (temperature gradient theory); marine cloud brightening (MCB)
SpouseAnn Bromley
ChildrenRob, Mike, David, Rebecca
Scientific career
FieldsClimate Physics
InstitutionsUMIST, University of Manchester, NCAR Boulder Colorado
Doctoral advisorJohn (BJ) Mason

Biography

Latham obtained a PhD on thunderstorm electrification from Imperial College London, where he was supervised by John Mason. In 1961, he moved to Umist, now part of Manchester University, to take up a lectureship and founded the Atmospheric Physics research group.[1] In 1988, he was hired as a senior research associate in ESSL/MMM[2] at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado.[3]

Latham is most known for his work on thunderstorm electrification[4] and marine cloud brightening,[5] a form of geoengineering which relies on seawater sprayed from ships. In collaboration with Stephen Salter he developed a scheme involving Flettner vessels.

He supervised over 25 doctoral students,[1] the first of whom was David Stow.[6]

Latham was also a talented writer. He published six collections of poetry[7] and had radio plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[8]

References
  1. "Our History (Centre for Atmospheric Science – The University of Manchester)". www.cas.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  2. "NCAR scientist is namesake of new British lab | NCAR & UCAR News".
  3. "Carcanet Press – John Latham". www.carcanet.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  4. Illingworth, A. J.; Latham, J. (April 1977). "Calculations of electric field growth, field structure and charge distributions in thunderstorms". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 103 (436): 281–295. doi:10.1002/qj.49710343606. ISSN 0035-9009.
  5. Latham, John (2002). "Amelioration of Global Warming by Controlled Enhancement of the Albedo and Longevity of Low-Level Maritime Clouds". Atmos. Sci. Letters. doi:10.1006/Asle.2002.0048
  6. "Physics Tree - David Stow".
  7. Alan Gadian (30 May 2021). "John Latham obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  8. "John Latham – Comma Press". commapress.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2021.


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