HOBBS, Peter V. 1936-2005

(Peter Victor Hobbs)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born May 31, 1936, in London, England; died of pancreatic cancer July 25, 2005, in Beaux Arts, WA. Meteorologist, professor, researcher, and author. Hobbs was a world-renowned atmospheric scientist who studied clouds and particulates in the environment using an airborne laboratory. After attending Kingston Technical College and the Royal College of Science, he earned a B.S. from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London in 1960, followed by a Ph.D. three years later. With his doctorate in hand, Hobbs accepted a job as assistant professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Here he became a full professor in 1970 and helped make the university's atmospheric sciences department world famous with his groundbreaking research methods. He did this by the ingenious approach of placing a fully equipped laboratory in an airplane and flying into the clouds to study various atmospheric phenomena directly. His first plane was a Douglas B-23 that had previously been owned by Howard Hughes; he later placed his lab in a Convair-131 and then a C-580. Using this method, Hobbs was able to study the formation of ice crystals in clouds, ash above erupting volcanoes, industrial air pollution, and even the environmental effects of burning oil rigs over Kuwait after the Persian Gulf War. Hobbs published his findings in journals and books, and also served as a consultant to state and federal agencies, as well as being a visiting lecturer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Among his books are Ice Physics (1974) and Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interactions (1993).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Grand Rapids Press, July 28, 2005.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 26, 2005, p. B2.

Seattle Times, July 26, 2005, p. B1.