Helmut Erich Landsberg (1906–1985) was a noted and influential climatologist. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, February 9, 1906 and died December 6, 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland while attending a meeting of the World Meteorological Organization. Landsberg was an important figure in meteorology and atmospheric science in education, public service and administration. He authored several notable works, particularly in the field of particulate matter and its influence on air pollution and human health. He is the first to write in English about the use of statistical analysis in the field of climatology and implemented such statistical analysis in aiding military operations during World War II. He received a number of significant honors during his life. Several honors are now bestowed in his name in recognition of his contributions to his field. Origins and education Landsberg was an only child of a Jewish couple. His father, Georg Landsberg, was a physician and his mother, Clare Zedner Landsberg was a housewife. He attended the city’s Woehler Realgymnasium High School, and then went on to study at the University of Frankfurt, physics, mathematics, and geosciences. After further studies at Frankfurt’s Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics, he received his PhD in 1930 from the University of Frankfurt, where Beno Gutenberg was his advisor. Gutenberg was a pupil of the founder of modern seismology Emil Johann Wiechert. Career He served as a supervisor of the Taunus Observatory of Geophysics and Meteorology at that university before moving to the United States in 1934 to teach geophysics and meteorology at the Pennsylvania State University. While there, he offered a graduate seminar on bioclimatic problems, the first such graduate course to be taught in the United States. He was subsequently appointed to the faculties of the University of Chicago (1941-1943) and the University of Maryland (1967-1976), with which he continued to work until his death. At Maryland, he served as first Director of the Graduate program in Meteorology (later named the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science), and of the Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics. Landsberg was skeptical of the risks of man-made global warming, arguing that computer models were unreliable and that the impacts of projected warming would be minor. In addition to his work in the field of education, Landsberg was active in public service. During World War II, he headed a project for the United States Air Force that provided information on climate