Mavis Kathleen Hinds was an English meteorologist who, together with Fred Bushby, pioneered the use of computers to carry out meteorological calculations in the UK. She studied Mathematics at University College London and on graduating joined the UK Meteorological Office in 1951, attending their Initial Forecasting Course that year. She went on to work with Bushby in using the Lyons Electronic Office, an early computer developed by J. Lyons & Co of Cadby Hall, London, becoming an expert in writing, running and correcting computer programs for weather forecasting. She was seen at that time as one of the first prominent female meteorologists and also the first to play a leading role in the development of Numerical Weather Prediction, not only in the UK but also worldwide.
Early life and education
Hinds passed her Higher School Certificate in pure mathematics, applied mathematics and physics. This was an ideal combination of subjects for the study of meteorology in which she was already developing an interest. On the strength of her examination results, Mavis was awarded a scholarship and a place to read Mathematics at University College London.
Research and career
From 1951 Hinds worked at the UK Met Office as part of their Forecast Research Division, which had been set up in 1949 in Dunstable, England. Hinds, as part of the Division, was instrumental in the development of Numerical Weather Prediction. The earliest days of NWP in the late 1940s relied on hand calculation but as electronic computing machines began to be developed in the US and the UK, NWP grew in reliability and prevalence. In 1954 at a meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, Bushby and Hinds presented the first computer-based baroclinic forecast in Europe. Since 1951, they had been making use of the computing power of the first Lyons Electronic Office, the world's first business computer, developed by J. Lyons & Co caterers of Cadby Hall, London. Because in the early 1950s the UK Met Office had no in-house computing facilities, calculating power had to be obtained from part-time use of LEO I and also the Ferranti Mark 1 Star at the University of Manchester. Use of these very early computers involved working unsociable hours when the machines were not being used by others. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Hinds worked with Fred Bushby and others on a series of published papers that detailed the developments made. In 1981, Hind reflected on the impact of computing on weather prediction that started for her with work done using the LEO I and in 1994 contributed a chapter about the history of UK Met Office computerisation to Peter Bird's book on the development of the LEO computers
