Who are, or have been, some of the major tornado researchers?
The list of important contributors to tornado science is so long that it can’t be put here without unjustly leaving someone out. Most of the “big names” in tornado research are found often in the accompanying list of scientific references. The biggest name, however, is probably the late T. Theodore “Ted” Fujita of the University of Chicago. Although his meteorological interests and publications covered numerous topics, he concentrated on aspects of tornado research, including damage (yielding the F-scale), vortex structure, photogrammetry, risk assessment, tornado climatology, and mesoscale analysis for forecasting tornado occurrence. For more information on Ted Fujita, there are tributes and biographies online, as well as a list of his publications.
