Hitschfeld, Walter, 1922-1986

Born in Vienna in 1922, Walter Hitschfeld received his B.A.Sc in Engineering Physics from the University of Toronto in 1946 and his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Physics from McGill University in 1950. He joined the staff of McGill's Physics Department in 1951. In 1961 he became Professor of Meteorology and Physics. Since 1962 Dr. Hitschfeld was Professor of Meteorology (Canada Steamship Lines). From 1964 to 1967 he was Chairman of the Meteorology Department, and from 1967 to 1971 Vice-Dean of Physical Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Then, in 1971, he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and Vice-Principal of Research, and served this position until 1980. In 1981 Dr. Hitschfeld accepted the invitation to become Director of McGill International. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, and a member of the Canadian Association of Physicists, the Canadian Meteorological Society, of which he was President from 1973 to 1974, the American Meteorological Society and the Society of Sigma X. Dr. Hitschfeld authored more than 20 articles on cloud physics and related subjects, and received Darton Prizes for meteorological research in 1960, 1962 and 1963. To honour Dr. Hitschfeld's authority in cloud physics and radar meteorology, the Environmental Earth Sciences Library was named after him. Dr. Hitschfeld died in 1986 in Montreal.