The Legacy of Prof. Lev Gutman: A Short Bio and Curious Facts

On March 5, 2023, Prof. Lev Gutman would be 100 years old. In the Soviet Union, where he was born and built his scientific career, he was known for his seminal works in the area of mesoscale meteorology - a specialized areа of atmospheric sciences. Because he was a mathematician and could apply his tools in adjacent research areas, he also touched on soil temperature transfer and ocean shallow layer problems, and, thus, had close friends and colleagues within those research fields. Most of his work, however, focused on typical mesoscale phenomena, such as breezes, cumulus clouds, vortices (e.g. tornados), and orographic effects on air motion, using the basic Navier-Stokes equations, the Rossby waves theory, the Monin-Obukhov theory, etc. Incidentally, Andrei Monin was Lev Gutman's friend and colleague during his early career, while Alexander Obukhov invited the recent Ph.D. Gutman to work at his institute.

Young Lev Gutman’s scientific interests were formed while working at the Central Institute for Weather Forecasts, which later became the HydrometCenter of the Soviet Union, under the guidance of Ilya Kibel - a pioneer in meteorological studies using the mathematical theory of fluid dynamics. One of Lev’s earlier achievements was the creation of the first mathematical model of a cumulus cloud. Due to the Iron Curtain’s restrictions, Soviet scientists were isolated from developments in the West regarding their research and worked sometimes in parallel without knowing about relevant achievements in Europe, Japan, or USA. This was slightly mitigated starting in the 1960s during the so-called "Khrushchev thaw" when western scientific journals became available in libraries. Making copies of an article, though, was always challenging, as copying was closely watched by the security staff.

Despite these challenges, references to pertinent papers in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Tellus, Monthly Weather Review and some other AMS publications could be found in the articles published by Prof. L. Gutman in the early '60s. Moreover, international scientists were coming to scientific meetings the Soviet Union, so Prof. Gutman established personal communication with many scientists in his field. However, traveling abroad for Soviet scientists presented an unsurmountable difficulty. Prof. Gutman was invited many times to Europe, USA and Japan and was always refused by the Soviet government, often without any explanation or otherwise with a transparent excuse. Meetings held in the Soviet Union during this period, however, provided Prof. Gutman the opportunity to meet and associate with such prominent US scientists as Jule Charney, Joe Smagorinsky, and Yale Mintz who are known for their general circulation seminal work. Later, after his emigration from the Soviet Union Prof. Gutman had the opportunity to meet personally and exchange ideas with mesoscale meteorologists, including Ted Fujita, Doug Lilly and others while visiting US institutions.

Prof. Gutman spent the early '60s in Nalchik, a city in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, where he organized and cultivated a group of young researchers in his field, whom he later brought with him to Academgorodok, a scientific center near Novosibirsk in western Siberia in 1964 to work in the newly established Laboratory for Mesoscale Meteorology. He was invited to Siberia to be the head of this Lab by Gury Marchuk, who at that time was the Director of the Computer Center, and later became the Head of the Siberian Branch of the Academy, and then the Head of the Academy of the Soviet Union. During late early '70s, Prof. Gutman hosted at his Lab early career post-docs from France on their extended visits (which included the Siberian winter!) as well senior researchers from European countries on their short visits. Despite the lagging computer technology in the Soviet Union, Prof. Gutman’s group at the Mesometeorological Lab utilized available computer facilities to further their research. However, Prof. Gutman was particularly renowned for his work in the analytical solutions of complex, non-linear equations in mesoscale meteorology. His seminal work, "Introduction to the Nonlinear Theory of Mesometeorological Processes" was published in Russian in 1969 and later translated into multiple languages including English (in 1972), Chinese and Japanese. The book became a major textbook for specialists in dynamical meteorology, remaining relevant to this day.

Prof. Gutman emigrated to Israel in 1978 and worked at Tel Aviv University. He was then invited by Prof. Louis Berkofsky to be a senior researcher at the meteorological unit of the Institute for Desert Research, at Beer Sheva University campus in Sde Boqer. He never stopped generating ideas and continued writing equations until his last day; his final article came out after his passing.

Since my background is in meteorology, he often shared with me his thoughts on a new problem he was working on - I still have the last recording with him explaining his most recent idea in April 2001. He was also an avid traveler. After not being allowed to go abroad from the Soviet Union, he was traveling from Israel continuously, calling himself the “citizen of the world”. When I came to Israel for his funeral, his suitcase was packed for a trip to Southeast Asia, where he wanted to travel and give a few invited lectures in Vietnam. Prof. Lev Gutman passed away on September 30, 2001, soon after 9/11. His legacy continues to impact the field of atmospheric sciences, particularly in the analytical solutions of the mathematical problems in mesoscale meteorology.