BAMOS April 2021
22 Obituary
Vale Tom Lyons
Image courtesy of Murdoch University
It is with great sadness that we inform you of the recent passing of AMOS Fellow Emeritus Professor Tom Lyons . Tom became a Fellow of AMOS in 2004 and was a Past President of AMOS WA . He was an active member of the AMOS WA Committee for many years . Tom received a Special AMOS Award for Excellence in Weather and Climate Research and Teaching in WA at the AMOS 2020 Conference in Fremantle .
Tom enjoyed a distinguished 40-year career at Murdoch University . He moved west after graduating from Flinders University , entering Murdoch as a foundation staff member . Tom rose through the ranks to become Professor of Atmospheric Science in the mid-1990s . He was among the very first faculty to be involved in establishing the Environmental Science degree at Murdoch — leading the atmospheric science and air pollution meteorology components of the program .
Tom ’ s well-known ‘ Rabbit Proof fence ’ BUFEX ( or BUnny Fence EXperiment ) field campaign at Lake King in southwest WA is one of the few observational field campaigns in the world to have clearly shown that the clearing of native vegetation for agriculture has important implications for convective cloud formation . One of his most-cited papers from that project was titled ‘ Clouds Prefer Native Vegetation ’, complete with a very descriptive aerial photo from the field campaigns showing just that ( clouds over the dark native vegetation , with none over the lighter agricultural zone ). Tom ' s research on land-use change attracted international attention drawing researchers from countries including Japan , United States and Germany to the region . The BUFEX field experiment continued into the 2000s .
Tom also contributed to numerous consulting roles — anyone who has travelled to Perth by plane has Tom to thank for his work on defining the boundary layer meteorology for the Perth airport as part of the ‘ Perth Downslope Wind study ’. This led to setting the alignment of the main runway south-south westerly to avoid dangerous gusts across the escarpment .
Tom was internationally known for his expertise in air pollution meteorology . He was instrumental in the ‘ Perth Photochemical Smog Study ’ by the Western Australian Environmental Protection Agency , as well as the ‘ Fumigation Study ’ of the plume from the Kwinana Power station and Industrial area in WA . He authored a book on ‘ Principles of air pollution meteorology ’, published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd in 1990 . This textbook has been used in numerous air pollution courses .
Tom passed away peacefully early on 8 April 2021 . Our thoughts are with his wife Margot , daughters Suzannah and Elizabeth , son-in-law Chris and grand-daughter Annabelle .
— Jatin Kala ( AMOS WA President ) and Angela Maharaj ( AMOS President ).