astronomy

Sue Grimmond

Sue Grimmond is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sue Grimmond rather than just read about it. In short: Christine Susan Betham Grimmond is a New Zealand scientist and professor of urban meteorology at the University of Reading. She has also held the post of Met Office Joint Chair.

Key takeaways

Sue Grimmond belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sue Grimmond to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sue Grimmond from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Christine Susan Betham Grimmond is a New Zealand scientist and professor of urban meteorology at the University of Reading. She has also held the post of Met Office Joint Chair. Grimmond is a pioneer of the fields of urban meteorology and micrometerology, which deal with the atmospheric boundary layer.

Education and early career Grimmond completed her BSc in physical geography at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand in 1980. In 1984, she obtained an MSc in physical geography, specialising in climatology and hydrology, from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She completed her PhD on evapotranspiration of urban areas at the University of British Columbia in 1989. In 1989, Grimmond took up an assistant professor post at Indiana University, USA. In 2006 she was appointed professor and chair of physical geography in the Environmental Monitoring & Modelling Group of King's College London, UK. In 2013 she took up the post of professor of meteorology at the University of Reading. Grimmond has undertaken visiting scientist positions at Tsinghua University, Chongqing University and Shanghai Institute of Meteorological Sciences (China), National University of Singapore (Singapore), the CSIRO Centre for Marine & Atmospheric Research (Australia), University of Gothenburg (Sweden), University of Tokyo (Japan) and Monash University (Australia).

Research interests Grimmond has contributed to wide range of topics within boundary layer and urban meteorology, publishing around 260 papers which have attracted approximately 34,000 citations, generating a h-index of 96. She has been particularly influential in understanding the effects of urbanisation on climate and the representation of urban environments within climate and weather simulations.

Awards and honours 2025, Fellow of the Royal Society 2024 Silver Medal, European Meteorological Society 2022 Sergei Zilitinkevich Award, European Meteorological Society 2020 Symons Gold Medal, Royal Meteorological Society 2013 Chair of the World Meteorological Organization Expert Team on Urban and Building Climatology 2012 Ernest Frolich Fellowship, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Australia 2009 Luke Howard Award for outstanding contributions to the field of urban climatology, International Association for Urban Climate 2009 Helmut E Landsberg Award, American Meteorological Society for "contributions that have greatly advanced urban meteorology & urban climate sciences, and for sustained & effective leadership that has energized the urban climate research community" 2008 Universitatis Lodziensis Amico Medal, University of Łódź, Poland 2006 Doctor of Science Honoris Causa, University of Gothenburg, Sweden 2006 Elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society 2003–2007 President of the International Association for Urban Climate

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sue Grimmond

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sue Grimmond claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sue Grimmond before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sue Grimmond ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sue Grimmond

In research: Sue Grimmond appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sue Grimmond in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sue Grimmond is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century New Zealand scientists, 20th-century New Zealand women scientists, 21st-century New Zealand scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sue Grimmond outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sue Grimmond in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sue Grimmond means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sue Grimmond out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sue Grimmond in simple terms?

Christine Susan Betham Grimmond is a New Zealand scientist and professor of urban meteorology at the University of Reading. She has also held the post of Met Office Joint Chair.

Why does Sue Grimmond matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sue Grimmond?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sue Grimmond.