The Nelson Institute community is very saddened by the news that Emeritus Professor Reid Bryson died Wednesday at his home in Madison. He was 88. (Read UW news release.)
Reid played a crucial role in the early years of the institute, first serving on a faculty committee in the 1960s that recommended its creation, then as its founding director from 1970 until his retirement in 1985.
Trained as a meteorologist, he was an early and fervent advocate of interdisciplinary teaching and research - a hallmark of the Nelson Institute. His own scholarship ranged across the fields of limnology, meteorology, climatology, archaeology, and geography, in which he wrote or co-authored five books and more than 260 other publications during an academic career that spanned six decades.
His tenure at the helm of the Nelson Institute - then called the Institute for Environmental Studies (IES) - followed professional achievements that included establishment of UW-Madison’s Department of Meteorology (now Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) in 1948 and of the Center for Climatic Research (CCR) in 1962.
On accepting his appointment as head of IES in 1970, Reid charted an ambitious course. “The institute is Wisconsin’s answer to the call for a Survival U,” he said. “I hope to make it the best of its kind in the country.”
Thirty-eight years later, the Nelson Institute carries on his deep commitment to interdisciplinary studies.
We offer our sincere condolences to Reid’s wife, Frances, and to the rest of his family. A memorial service for Reid will be held at a future date.