Charles B. Moore is internationally known for his research on the electrical aspects of thunderstorms and volcanoes. He is an expert in many different areas of atmospheric research, including the scientific and political aspects of weather modification, the scientific and practical issues of lightning protection, and the efficacy of different kinds of lightning rods.
After serving as a Weather Equipment Officer for the US. Army Air Force, Moore completed his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He made pioneering advances in the development and testing of polyethylene balloons as atmospheric research tools and undertook a number of test flights. In 1957, he made a record-breaking flight to the altitude of 82,000 feet in a pressurized balloon gondola, during which he made the first measurements revealing traces of water vapor in the atmosphere of Venus.
In 1964, Moore came to New Mexico Tech as research physicist, recruited by then-president Stirling Colgate. He became chairman of Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research in 1969, where he was instrumental in developing many of the lab's important facilitites, conducting research, and mentoring the next generation of atmospheric scientists.
Moore nominally retired from New Mexico Tech in 1985, but since then he has developed the first real improvement to the lightning rod since Benjamin Franklin invented it in the 18th century. As a result of his work, most of the lightning rods manufactured in the United States today are blunt-tipped rather than pointed.
C.B. Moore is a fellow in the Royal Meteorological Society, the American
Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement
of Science. In 1984, he was recipient of New Mexico Tech's first
Distinguished Research Award.