David Brunt

Sir David Brunt, KBE, FRS (17 June 1886 – 5 February 1965) was a Welsh meteorologist. He was Professor of Meteorology at Imperial College, London from 1934 to 1952. He was Vice-President of the Royal Society from 1949 to 1957.

He was born in Staylittle, Montgomeryshire, Wales, the youngest of the nine children of farmworker John Brunt. His father moved the family to the mining district In Monmouthshire to work as a coal miner. David attended the local Abertillery School from 1899 to 1904. In 1904 he secured a scholarship to enter the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth, where he studied mathematics, physics and chemistry, gaming a first class honours degree in mathematics in 1907. He then went up to Trinity College, Cambridge and in 1909 was elected to the Isaac Newton studentship at the National Solar Physics Observatory.

After leaving Cambridge he spent a year as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Birmingham and two years in a similar post at the Monmouthshire Training College, Caerleon. In 1916 he enlisted in the Royal Engineers (meteorological section) and during the war years did important work related to atmospherical conditions at low levels in chemical warfare. He later became meteorologist to the Air Force. After demobilisation he joined the Meteorological Office which in 1921 became the Air Ministry. He continued his personal research and accepted Sir Napier Shaw's invitation to join him as part-time professor of meteorology at the Imperial College, London. After the retirement of Sir Napier Shaw Brunt beame the first full-time professor of meteorology in Britain, holding the chair from 1934 to 1952. Two years later was elected a Fellow of the college. He independently co-discovered the Brunt–Väisälä frequency.

Between 1936 and 1939 he contributed to a theoretical understanding of fog dispersal, information used in the development of the FIDO fog dispersal system.

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