Dr. Stan, Renaissance Weatherman

Purposes of the Website

To provide free copies, never for commercial purposes, of

1. My works including books completed since retirement, PowerPoints and Lectures in Atmospheric Science, Hydrology, Atmospheric Art and Optics, plus Essays, Poems, and Stories.

2. Beta Test of a new book, Wonders of the Atmosphere (with Jan Curtis). (See below!)

Brief Bio: Stanley David Gedzelman

Fascinated by mathematics and entranced by the power of the atmosphere and its storms, Hurricane Donna (Sept 1960) convinced me to major in Meteorology at CCNY. There I became a Renaissance man, falling in love with the liberal arts and social sciences, and began writing poems, essays, and short stories. After earning my Ph. D. in Meteorology at MIT in 1970 I returned to CCNY, where I became fascinated with the beauty of the atmosphere, so that my interests broadened to include nature photography, atmospheric optics and art of the atmosphere. Upon retiring in 2012, I became a high school substitute teacher and wrote Sub Ways, a memoir of my experiences and ideas of teaching and, Calculus: Your Royal Road to Genius. I then revised The Soul of All Scenery: A History of the Sky in Art. This was followed by Genial Atheism and now, Wonders of the Atmosphere.

WONDERS OF THE ATMOSPHERE

Stanley David Gedzelman and Jan Curtis

Wake the atmosphere from its background, spirit-setting slumber and it may reveal a beauty and power that rivet attention and compel reverence. Displaying and explaining the atmosphere, especially in its roused moods, is our purpose and goal in creating this book.

It is important to do this, not only for aesthetics but to wrench attention away from news on the atmosphere, which focuses almost exclusively on the negative – the havoc and destruction its storms and extremes wreak and the fractious politics of how we either have or haven’t altered and polluted it, all while the science remains unambiguous.

By showcasing the atmosphere’s beautiful and awe inspiring phenomena, we hope to inspire in you some measure of the lifelong sense of wonder, awe, and reverence we have felt for the natural world and the care we must take as wardens when manipulating it.