The Originator of the Establishment of Agro-meteorology Study Program of FMIPA IPB
At the beginning of 1970s, the Climatology Section, the Department of Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Agriculture of IPB was very fortunate to have a volunteer who worked full-time. She was Mrs Ruth Chambers, MSc, a Geographer who was the graduate from the Southampton University, UK. On the newly elapsed date of 26 October 2012, we were struck by the sad news from Oxford. Dr John Chambers, her husband, reported that Mrs Chambers had been summoned by God the Almighty in the serene and peaceful in the night before at 11 pm local time.
The academic journey of Mrs Chambers together with IPB particularly and in Indonesia generally until 1985 could not be separated from the presence and thrive of the higher education in the field of Agricultural Climatology. Based on her initiative and encouragement, for the first time in Indonesia the Agro-climatology Study Program in the Graduate School was known. Then it was followed by Degree Program in the field of Agro-meteorology at IPB that became the forerunner of the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, the Faculty of Natural Sciences of IPB.
For the support of the English Royal Government through BritAID/Colombo Plan, she supported the cooperation in education and research in the field of Agro-climatology. Preceded by the faculty exchange program of the University from British (Nottingham and Reading) and from Indonesia, then it was continued with the library and equipment procurement, the development of educational curriculum of Master of Science and the research. The agro-climatology was growing very rapidly in the early 1980s. Dozens of Master of Science in this field began to be produced and back to teaching and research in the parent institutions. Even some had the opportunity to continue with the Doctoral Program in British.
In this area, IPB had also reached out and developed the wings in various Universities in Indonesia and cooperated with various government institutions like Department of Agriculture, Department of Forestry, Department of Public Works, Department of Transportation, and Ministry of Environment. Along with several senior staffs of IPB and Meteorological and Geophysics Institution, BMG (now BMKG), Mrs Chambers initiated the importance of building a scientific community which was wider. In the year of 1979, the Association of Agricultural Meteorology of Indonesia (HIMPI) was formed, now it was known as PERHIMPI.
Mrs and Mr Chambers (at that time the Geomorphology Lecturer, Department of Soil Science and the Teacher of the Christian Religion at IPB) were blessed with two children, Paul and Mary Chambers (born in Bogor). Both were Doctors graduated from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and each had given 3 grandchildren.
The passed away of Mrs Chambers left memories in for IPB and very important contribution to the scientific community of Indonesia either knew or did not know her. Her unique contribution in the field of Agro-climatology (thus the term she used for the first time when she was stacking Graduate brochure and I translated) was needed to be maintained and developed in accordance with the challenges of the times. Goodbye Mrs Chambers. (Daniel Murdiyarso)
