Fujita, Tetsuya Theodore

Tetsuya Theodore Fujita (1920-1998) was born in Kitakyushu, Japan. After receiving his doctorate from Tokyo University in 1950, he began a career as an associate professor at the Kyushu Institute of Technology. In 1953, he began to teach at the University of Chicago, at which he served as a professor until his death in 1998. During his career, Ted Fujita researched meteorology, focusing on severe storms such as microbursts, tornadoes, and hurricanes. He pioneered new techniques for documenting severe storms, including aerial photography and the use of satellite images and film. He also created the Fujita Scale for assessing tornado strength based on a given storm's wind speed and the amount of damage it caused

From the guide to the T. Theodore Fujita Collection, S 1697., 1896-2003 and undated, (Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University)