Konrad Johannes Karl Büttner facts for kids

Konrad Johannes Karl Büttner, or Buettner (6 October 1903 – 14 November 1970) was a German-American meteorologist, bioclimatologist and university professor.

Life and times

Büttner was born in Westendorf, in the province of Hannover, Germany and died in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a Protestant, married and had one child. His father was John Samuel Julius Büttner and his mother was Emilie Henriette Elisabeth Büttner née Kreuser.

Education

From 1917 to 1922, he attended the Gymnasium high school at Schulpforte. From 1922 to 1926, Büttner studied geophysics, physics and mathematics in Erlangen, Hanover and Göttingen. In 1927, he completed a doctorate degree at the University of Göttingen and published his thesis: "Experiments on the penetrating radiation" and was awarded the Dr. Phil.

In 1934, he completed the habilitation treatise titled: "The heat transfer by conduction and convection, evaporation and radiation in Bioklimatologie and Meteorology", at the University of Kiel. He became head of the Bioclimatic Research Centre at the University of Kiel.

Academic appointments

From 1927 to 1931, Büttner had a scholarship for Meteorology in Potsdam and was a fellow of the Emergency Association of German Science. From 1931 until 1934, he was scientific assistant for Meteorology as Assistant Professor and Head of the Bioclimatic Research Centre in Kiel. While at Kiel, from 1939 to 1947, he was lecturer for Meteorology and Geophysics. In January 1947, Büttner received an extraordinary professorship of Meteorology at the University of Kiel.

Nazi Party

• 1933 - 1945, Sturmabteilung (SA), member
• 1933 - 1945, National Socialist German Workers' Party, member

During World War II, Büttner was attached to the Medical Department of the Medical Research Institute for Graf Zeppelins active in Stuttgart-Ruit, previously the Luftwaffe main testing ground at the Rechlin–Lärz Airfield. Büttner lectured as government medical officer at the sessions on medical issues in distress and death in winter on 26 and 27 October 1942.

Operation Paperclip

In 1947, Büttner was recruited for Operation Paperclip and was first granted a leave of absence from teaching in Kiel and resigned in December 1950 from the University. Büttner went to the United States at Randolph Air Force Base, School of Aviation Medicine. From 1947 until 1953, he was research scientist for meteorology at the School of Medicine Aviation at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas.

University of Washington in Seattle

From 1953 until his death in 1970, Büttner was professor for Meteorology and Physiology in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle in Seattle, Washington. Chairman of the department was Philemon Edwards Church and graduate program advisor was Robert Guthrie Fleagle. At Seattle in the Graduate School, Department of Atmospheric Sciences (formerly Meteorology and Climatology), for the school year 1963-1965, the catalog listed the courses taught by Buettner as: microclimatology, applied meteorology and bioclimatology, the upper atmosphere, atmospheric electricity, atmospheric radiation.

As per the graduate school catalog, Graduate course descriptions are as follows:

• Applied meteorology and bioclimatology - interrelationship of meteorology and climatology to: human health and heat balance, aviation medicine and space medicine, air pollution, agriculture, forestry, transportation, etc.
• The upper atmosphere - structure, composition, and dominant physical and photochemical processes. Sound propagation, aurora, air glow, ionosphere, and Van Allen belts. Role of the sun. Exosphere and planetary atmospheres.
• Atmospheric electricity - formation and disappearance of atmospheric ions. Normal air electrical field. Lightning and its causes. Earth magnetic field.
• Atmospheric radiation - solar spectrum. Atmospheric scattering, spectra of water vapor and other gases. Albedo of earth and atmosphere. Radiative heat balance.

Patents

• Humidity Sensing Devices. U.S. Patent No. 3,315,518.