Necrologies

Takashi Sasamori, emeritus professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois, died in Urbana, Illinois, on 17 April 2001. Sasamori was born in Tokyo on 1 February 1930. He studied at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, graduating with a B.S. in physics and geophysics in 1953, an M.S. in 1955 and a D.Sci. in geophysics and meteorology in 1959. His thesis research concerned observations of atmospheric radiation and spectroscopic studies of polyatomic molecules.

Sasamori continued his research into radiative problems, working as a research scientist for the Japan Defense Agency. In the mid 1960s, he moved to the United States. He served as a research associate at the University of Colorado, where he enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Julius London. From 1967 to 1978, he was a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). He was instrumental in developing the "second generation" NCAR general circulation model, for which he formulated efficient parameterizations of radiative transfer. He joined the University of Illinois as a professor of meteorology in 1978. Except for summer visits to Los Alamos and Argonne National Laboratories, Sasamori remained at Illinois until his retirement in 1993.

Sasamori's research was remarkable for its breadth. His 30 published papers address problems in radiative transfer, radiative modeling, interactions of radiation with dynamics, numerical modeling of the boundary layer, instabilities of large-scale atmospheric flows, and the circulations of the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter. The thoughtfulness and originality of his research is reflected in the fact that several of his papers from the 1960s and 1970s are still widely cited. Sasamori's work invariably featured mathematical rigor, tempered by physical reasoning. A fine example is provided in what is perhaps his best known paper, "A Linear Harmonic Analysis of Atmospheric Motion with Radiative Dissipation." After several pages of mathematical analysis, Sasamori closes the paper with an intuitive diagram, in which he uses tanks and pipes to represent the transformations of energy within the atmosphere.

At Illinois, while Sasamori taught courses in radiative transfer and in boundary layers and turbulence, his research increasingly focused on large-scale dynamics. He was particularly interested in relating the large year-to-year variations in midwestern climate to the dynamics of stationary planetary waves. At the time of his death he was revising the manuscript of a book, titled Statistical Mechanics of Atmospheric Turbulence: An Introduction.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Takashi is fondly remembered as a considerate colleague and a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He was an avid gardener and an active member of his Methodist church. Takashi is survived by Kasuko, his wife of 43 years; three children Koichi, Akira, and Kieko; and three grandchildren.-Walter Robinson