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Sir William Napier Shaw

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"SIR WILLIAM NAPIER SHAW (1854-), British meteorologist, was born at Birmingham, March 4 1854. He was educated at King Edward's school, Birmingham, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1877, and the university of Berlin. From 1887-99 he was university lecturer in experimental physics at Cambridge, from 1898-9 assistant director of the Cavendish laboratory, and from 1890-9 senior tutor of Emmanuel College. In 1891 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1897 he became a member of the Meteorological Council, and was from 1900 to 1905 its secretary, in the latter year being appointed director of the Meteorological Office. In 1907 he became reader in meteorology in the university of London. He was president of the mathematical and physical section of the British Association in 1908 and of the educational section in 1919, and in 1919 was president of the International Conference of Meteorologists held in Paris. He was knighted in 1915, and in 1920 retired from his position at the Meteorological Office. Sir Napier Shaw's works include Life History of Surface Air Currents (with R. G. K. Lempfert, 1906); Air Currents and the Laws of Ventilation (1907); Forecasting Weather (1911); Manual of Meteorology (1919); besides many papers in scientific journals and valuable reports of meteorological and other subjects. He received many honours and distinctions, including the Symons medal of the Royal Meteorological Society.