Fujita, Tetsuya

Tetsuya Fujita, in full Tetsuya Theodore Fujita, also called Ted Fujita or T. Theodore Fujita, original name Fujita Tetsuya, (born October 23, 1920, Kitakyūshū City, Japan—died November 19, 1998, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), Japanese-born American meteorologist who created the Fujita Scale, or F-Scale, a system of classifying tornado intensity based on damage to structures and vegetation. He also discovered macrobursts and microbursts, weather phenomena that are associated with severe thunderstorms and are hazards to aviation.

Fujita earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1943 from Meiji College of Technology, Kitakyūshū City, Japan, where he became an assistant professor in the physics department in 1944. Upon completion of a doctoral degree from Tokyo University in 1953, he moved to the United States and joined the meteorology department at the University of Chicago. After a trip to Japan in 1955–56 to obtain an immigrant visa, he returned to the University of Chicago. Fujita became a U.S. citizen in 1968 and took “Theodore” as a middle name. He remained at the University of Chicago, serving in a variety of positions, until his death.