Hendrik Tennekes
From ClimateWiki
Hendrik (Henk) Tennekes (born December 13, 1936, Kampen) was the director of research at the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, or KNMI), and was a Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He is known for his work in the fields of turbulence and multi-modal forecasting. He authored the textbooks The Simple Science of Flight and A First Course in Turbulence with John L. Lumley. The book "A First Course in Turbulence", is a classic that logs more than 2,000 citations on Google Scholar.
Tennekes was a strong proponent of scientific modeling.
He was a member of the 'Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences' (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, KNAW) from 1982 - 2010. Contents
Controversy
In an interview in the Dutch paper De Telegraaf, Tennekes says he was ousted from his position at the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute due to his skepticism over climate change. After publishing a column critical of climate model accuracy, Tennekes says he was told "within two years, you'll be out on the street".
Gerbrand Komen, retired KNMI researcher, gives another explanation for Tennekes' departure. According to Komen there were two problems:
- Tennekes' personality
- The fact Tennekes refused to buy a new computer to improve forecasting, because he thought it was unnecessary. According to Gerbrand Komen, Tennekes sometimes referred to biblical texts to support this decision
Books
- The Simple Science of Flight, MIT Press, 1997. ISBN 0-262-70065-4
- The Simple Science of Flight. From Insects to Jumbo Jets. Revised and Expanded Edition, 2009. MIT Press. Paperback ISBN 978-0262513135
- A First Course in Turbulence, with John L. Lumley, MIT Press, 1972. ISBN 0-262-20019-8
