Heinrich von Ficker was a German-Austrian meteorologist and geophysicist who was a native of Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. He was the son of historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Julius von Ficker

Julius von Ficker

Julius von Ficker was a Roman Catholic German historian.-Career:Born at Paderborn, Ficker studied history and law at Bonn, Münster, and Berlin, and during 1848-49 lived in Frankfurt, where he was closely associated with the noted historian, Johann Friedrich Böhmer, who proved himself a generous...

 (1826–1902).

Career

From 1911 he was a professor of meteorology at the University of Graz

University of Graz

The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....

, and from 1923 to 1937 was a professor at the University of Berlin. During his tenure at Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, he also spent several years as director of the Prussian Meteorological Institute. From 1937 until his retirement in 1952, he was a professor at University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

 and director of the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics

Geodynamics

Geodynamics is a subfield of geophysics dealing with dynamics of the Earth. It applies physics, chemistry and mathematics to the understanding of how mantle convection leads to plate tectonics and geologic phenomena such as seafloor spreading, mountain building, volcanoes, earthquakes, faulting and...

 (ZAMG).

In 1906 and 1910, while based in Innsbruck

Innsbruck

- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

, Ficker performed extensive scientific studies involving the dynamics of Alpine

Climate of the Alps

The climate of the Alps is the climate, or average weather conditions over a long time, of the exact middle Alpine region of Europe. As air rises from sea level to the upper regions of the atmosphere the temperature decreases...

 foehn winds. With biometeorologist

Biometeorology

Biometeorology is the interdisciplinary field of science that studies the interactions between the biosphere and the Earth's atmosphere on time scales of the order of seasons or shorter .-Examples of relevant processes:...

 Bernhard de Rudder (1894–1962), he was the author of the treatise Föhn und Föhnwirkungen (Foehn and Foehn Effects). Ficker was also responsible for important research of cold front

Cold front

A cold front is defined as the leading edge of a cooler mass of air, replacing a warmer mass of air.-Development of cold front:The cooler and denser air wedges under the less-dense warmer air, lifting it...

s and heat wave

Heat wave

A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. There is no universal definition of a heat wave; the term is relative to the usual weather in the area...

s that occur in Russia and northern Asia.