Science Adviser Profile

Biography

Kristine C. Harper is a professor of history and philosophy of the Earth sciences at the University of Copenhagen. She was previously a professor of history at Florida State University (FSU) and a core faculty member of the FSU-Teach program (math and science education), the faculty senate president, and a member of the FSU Board of Trustees. Before earning her Ph.D. in history of science from Oregon State University, Kristine was an active duty navy meteorologist and oceanographer (she earned an M.S. from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School), providing operational meteorological and oceanographic support to U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and North Atlantic Treaty Organization units in the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Iceland. She also spent a year commanding a deep-ocean survey unit in the Equatorial Atlantic.

As a historian of science, technology, and the environment, Kristine has focused on the history of atmospheric sciences in the 20th century, with a primary focus on the Cold War. Her first monograph, Weather by the Numbers: The Genesis of Modern Meteorology (MIT Press, 2008), discussed the interconnecting roles of military, Weather Bureau, and academic meteorologists in the creation of numerical weather prediction. Her second book, Make it Rain: State Control of the Atmosphere in Twentieth Century America (University of Chicago Press, 2017), examined the role of the U.S. government in financing and encouraging efforts to control the weather for military, diplomatic, and domestic national security purposes. It was awarded the American Meteorological Society’s Louis J. Battan Authors Award in January 2018. Kristine has been a member of AGU’s History of Geophysics Committee since 2002 and its chair since 2009.

Affiliation

Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen

Location

Copenhagen, Denmark