Vonnegut, Bernard, 1993-05-09

Oral history interview with Bernard Vonnegut, 1993. Interviewed by Earl Droessler. 1 sound cassette (ca. 1 hrs.) : analog, mono + transcript (16 pgs.). AMS 95; two physical versions (one master, one copy). Forms part of American Meteorological Society Oral History Project. Vonnegut begins by recounting his education and how he became interested in meteorology through talking with Jim Dodson about airplane deicing. Vonnegut then talks about his work with the General Electric Research Laboratory on Project Cirrus and leaving GE to work on dissipating warm fog at Arthur D. Little. He comments on meeting Charlie Moore and studying thunderstorm electrification, elaborating on Moore’s personality and his study on ionosphere radiation. Droessler asks about Vonnegut’s time as a professor at the State University of New York at Albany and Vonnegut talks about a student, Pacerelli, who researched crystal size for cloud seeding. He also talks about another student, Bob Ryan, and his successes as a TV weatherman and his current (during the interview) presidency of the American Meteorological Society. Vonnegut continues on to discuss his involvement in the space program observing lightning from astronaut cameras and Anton Simon’s electrification research.