OU scientist works to help weather the storm ahead

By James S. Tyree

Published: January 22, 2007

NORMAN — Yoshi Sasaki, fresh from celebrating his 80th birthday and 53rd wedding anniversary this month, still is zipping about the University of Oklahoma south research campus like a worker bee.

Wednesday, the George Lynn Cross research professor emeritus was spotted heading into the Stephenson Research and Technology Center. A few minutes later, Sasaki was dashing into One Partners Place, often called the Weathernews building.

He often conducts business there in addition to the new National Weather Center, where he keeps an office.

“People keep me busy and my grandchildren. And,” he paused before saying with a smile, “I’m a workaholic.”

Family, the study and teaching of meteorology and his fostering of relations between Japan and Oklahoma amply have fed his appetite for staying busy for more than a half century.

The projects keep coming, including one scheduled Feb. 13 when a Japanese delegation visits Norman and Washington, D.C., to learn about developing a Doppler radar network.

Sasaki also wants to see more interaction between meteorology professors and students in the two countries.

“We have a tremendous experience, a treasure here,” Sasaki said. “I think we should share, that’s one thing. Fatalities are not down to zero; that’s what I want.”

Developing relations
After studying at Tokyo University and working at Texas A&M University, Sasaki arrived at OU in 1960 to help start a meteorology program.

The move came after he was credited for developing the theory of single Doppler radar wind analysis and received an award in 1955 from the Japan Meteorological Society for his research on numerical prediction of typhoon tracks.

Sasaki was a founding member of the Japan Oklahoma Society, serves on the Governor’s International Team and was a key figure in establishing a sister-city relationship between Norman and Kyoto, Japan.

His efforts helped bring Japan-based companies Weathernews, Hitachi Computer and Astellas — formerly Yamanouchi Pharmaceuticals — to Norman.

Yet Sasaki, an honorary consul general of Japan, says those accomplishments come down to establishing personal relationships — something he’s done well with his wife, Koko.

“I’ve always been in peopleto-people relations,” Sasaki said. “Mostly, she did the job, and I was helping.”

Connecting with people also was an academic strength. Among the prized possessions in his office are bound copies of doctoral theses from dozens of students.

Sasaki said he couldn’t count the number of students he taught, whose ranks include Robert Sheets, former National Hurricane Center director, and Joe Friday, former National Weather Service director.

Another former student is Kelvin Droegemeier, an OU meteorology professor and National Science Board member.

“He’s an excellent scientist, but he’s a real statesman,” Droegemeier said. “He has respect for other people, plays the statesman role in bringing people together ... and he’s very student-oriented; he would let students be creative on their own. He helped people learn how to learn, rise to the occasion and come up with their own thoughts.”

Preventing tragedy
Sasaki said his passion for studying weather stemmed from a 1954 typhoon that sank a ferry off Japan, killing hundreds. The forecast was incorrect, Sasaki said.

“That was a shock to me and I thought I’d like to study more,” said Sasaki, a Tokyo University student in 1954.

Sasaki figured “before you forecast, you have to see.” He based his research on Britain’s development of radar technology to detect enemy rockets and aircraft during World War II, thinking it might also work in locating tornadoes.

His work led to the DOVES — Doppler Operational Variational Extraction of Singularities — math formula for radar wind analysis. It was a major advance for the time, but the technology itself didn’t tell the full story.

“What you see on the screen, a storm chaser would say it is or is not a tornado,” Sasaki said. “Later on, we learned of hook echoes (on radar) that would tell you.”

New discoveries still excite Sasaki, causing him to exclaim, “I wish I was young.” He would love to find a way to disrupt tornadoes as they happen.

“You can always dream,” he said with another smile. “It’s out there.”