Weather and Climate Pioneer Miyakoda Dies

Atmospheric scientist Kikuro Miyakoda, a good friend and colleague of scientists at the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA), passed away in Boston MA on February 19 at the age of 91. COLA Director & AOES Chair Jim Kinter was one of the two students who completed a PhD dissertation (Princeton, 1984) under the direction of Dr. Miyakoda. Kinter notes, “He was a pioneer of extended range weather and climate prediction who pushed to ever longer lead-time forecasts using ever more sophisticated models of the global atmosphere and coupled ocean-atmosphere system.”

University Professor Jagadish Shukla notes “Kiku was a great source of inspiration for us at COLA.” More than 35 years ago, Miyakoda “supported the premise of predictability in the midst of chaos,” a guiding principle of much research at COLA. Dr. Miyakoda’s two former students, Kinter and Dr. Antonio Navarra (Princeton, 1985; President of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change), are preparing a memorial article for Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.