Susan Solomon

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Susan Solomon
Susan Solomon-Desk With Globe.jpg
Solomon in 2004
Born
Citizenship United States
Alma mater
Known forOzone Studies
Awards National Medal of Science (1999)
V. M. Goldschmidt Award (2006)
William Bowie Medal (2007)
Volvo Environment Prize (2009)
Vetlesen Prize (2012)
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2012)
Crafoord Prize (2018)
Scientific career
FieldsAtmospheric Chemistry
Institutions MIT

Susan Solomon (born in Chicago) [1] [2] is an American atmospheric chemist, working for most of her career at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). [3] In 2011, Solomon joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she serves as the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry & Climate Science. [4] Solomon, with her colleagues, was the first to propose the chlorofluorocarbon free radical reaction mechanism that is the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole. [3]

Contents

Solomon is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the European Academy of Sciences, and the French Academy of Sciences. [5] In 2002, Discover magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science. [6] In 2008, Solomon was selected by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. [7] She also serves on the Science and Security Board for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. [8]

Biography

Susan Solomon, 2010 Susan Solomon crop 2010 Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture.jpg
Susan Solomon, 2010

Early life

Solomon's interest in science began as a child watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau . [1] In high school she placed third in a national science competition, with a project that measured the percentage of oxygen in a gas mixture. [1]

Solomon received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1977. She then received an M.S. in chemistry in 1979 from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by a Ph.D. in 1981 in atmospheric chemistry. [3]

Personal life

Solomon married Barry Sidwell in 1988. [9] She is Jewish. [10]

Work

Solomon was the head of the Chemistry and Climate Processes Group of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Chemical Sciences Division until 2011. In 2011, she joined the faculty of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [11]

Books

  • The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition, Yale University Press, 2002 ISBN   0-300-09921-5 – Depicts the tale of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's failed 1912 Antarctic expedition, specifically applying the comparison of modern meteorological data with that recorded by Scott's expedition in an attempt to shed new light on the reasons for the demise of Scott's polar party. [12] [13]
  • Aeronomy of the Middle Atmosphere: Chemistry and Physics of the Stratosphere and Mesosphere, 3rd Edition, Springer, 2005 ISBN   1-4020-3284-6 – Describes the atmospheric chemistry and physics of the middle atmosphere from 10 to 100 kilometres (6.2 to 62.1 mi) altitude. [14]

The Ozone Hole

Susan Solomon at the Crafoord Prize ceremony in Stockholm 2018 Crafoord Prize EM1B0739 (28456528038).jpg
Susan Solomon at the Crafoord Prize ceremony in Stockholm 2018

Solomon, working with colleagues at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratories, postulated the mechanism that the Antarctic ozone hole was created by a heterogeneous reaction of ozone and chlorofluorocarbons free radicals on the surface of ice particles in the high altitude clouds that form over Antarctica. In 1986 and 1987 Solomon led the National Ozone Expedition to McMurdo Sound, where the team gathered the evidence to confirm the accelerated reactions. [3] Solomon was the solo leader of the expedition, and the only woman on the team. [15] Her team measured levels of chlorine oxide 100 times higher than expected in the atmosphere, which had been released by the decomposition of chlorofluorocarbons by ultraviolet radiation. [16]

Solomon later showed that volcanoes could accelerate the reactions caused by chlorofluorocarbons, and so increase the damage to the ozone layer. Her work formed the basis of the U.N. Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to protect the ozone layer by regulating damaging chemicals. [1] [17] Solomon has also presented some research which suggests that implementation of the Montreal Protocols is having a positive effect. [18] [19]

Using research work conducted by English explorer and navy officer Robert Falcon Scott, Solomon also wrote and spoke about Scott's 1911 expedition in The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition to counter a longstanding argument that blamed Scott for his and his crew's demise during that expedition. Scott attributed his death to unforeseen weather conditions – a claim that has been contested by British journalist and author Roland Huntford. Huntford claimed that Scott was a prideful and under-prepared leader. Solomon has defended Scott and said that "modern data side squarely with Scott", describing the weather conditions in 1911 as unusual. [20]

For her critical contribution to saving the ozone layer, Solomon was a winner of the 2021 Future of Life Award along with Joe Farman and Stephen O. Andersen. Dr. Jim Hansen, former Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Director of Columbia University's Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions said, "In Farman, Solomon and Andersen we see the tremendous impact individuals can have not only on the course of human history, but on the course of our planet's history. My hope is that others like them will emerge in today's battle against climate change." [21] Professor Guus Velders, a climate scientist at Utrecht University said, "Susan Solomon is a deserving recipient of the Future of Life Award. Susan not only explained the processes behind the formation of the ozone hole, she also played an active role as an interface between the science and policy of the Montreal Protocol." [21]

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Solomon served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [3] She was a contributing author for the Third Assessment Report. [22] She was also co-chair of Working Group I for the Fourth Assessment Report. [23]

External audio
Nuvola apps arts.svg “Whatever Happened to the Ozone Hole?”, Distillations Podcast Episode 230, April 17, 2018, Science History Institute

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ozone layer</span> Region of the stratosphere

The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. It contains a high concentration of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the atmosphere, although still small in relation to other gases in the stratosphere. The ozone layer contains less than 10 parts per million of ozone, while the average ozone concentration in Earth's atmosphere as a whole is about 0.3 parts per million. The ozone layer is mainly found in the lower portion of the stratosphere, from approximately 15 to 35 kilometers (9 to 22 mi) above Earth, although its thickness varies seasonally and geographically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ozone depletion</span> Atmospheric phenomenon

Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone around Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. There are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events in addition to these stratospheric events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chlorofluorocarbon</span> Class of organic compounds

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and propane.

The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is the highest award for atmospheric science of the American Meteorological Society. It is presented to individual scientists, who receive a medal. Named in honor of meteorology and oceanography pioneer Carl-Gustaf Rossby, who was also its second (1953) recipient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Molina</span> Mexican chemist (1943–2020)

Mario José Molina Henríquez was a Mexican physical chemist. He played a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in discovering the threat to the Earth's ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases. He was the first Mexican-born scientist to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the third Mexican-born person to receive a Nobel prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. Sherwood Rowland</span> American chemist (1927–2012)

Frank Sherwood "Sherry" Rowland was an American Nobel laureate and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. His research was on atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics. His best-known work was the discovery that chlorofluorocarbons contribute to ozone depletion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Jouzel</span> French glaciologist and climatologist

Jean Jouzel is a French glaciologist and climatologist. He has mainly worked on the reconstruction of past climate derived from the study of the Antarctic and Greenland ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul J. Crutzen</span> Dutch climatologist (1933–2021)

Paul Jozef Crutzen was a Dutch meteorologist and atmospheric chemist. He and Mario Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for their work on atmospheric chemistry and specifically for his efforts in studying the formation and decomposition of atmospheric ozone. In addition to studying the ozone layer and climate change, he popularized the term Anthropocene to describe a proposed new epoch in the Quaternary period when human actions have a drastic effect on the Earth. He was also amongst the first few scientists to introduce the idea of a nuclear winter to describe the potential climatic effects stemming from large-scale atmospheric pollution including smoke from forest fires, industrial exhausts, and other sources like oil fires.

Jerry Mahlman was an American meteorologist and climatologist.

William Richard Peltier, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), is university professor of physics at the University of Toronto. He is director of the Centre for Global Change Science, past principal investigator of the Polar Climate Stability Network, and the scientific director of Canada's largest supercomputer centre, SciNet. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of the American Geophysical Union, of the American Meteorological Society, and of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veerabhadran Ramanathan</span>

Veerabhadran "Ram" Ramanathan is Edward A. Frieman Endowed Presidential Chair in Climate Sustainability Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He has contributed to many areas of the atmospheric and climate sciences including developments to general circulation models, atmospheric chemistry, and radiative transfer. He has been a part of major projects such as the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) and the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), and is known for his contributions to the areas of climate physics, Climate Change and atmospheric aerosols research. He is now the Chair of Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions education project of University of California. He has received numerous awards, and is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He has spoken about the topic of global warming, and written that "the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming is, in my opinion, the most important environmental issue facing the world today."

The NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for contributions to chemistry, either in fundamental science or its application, that clearly satisfy a societal need." It has been awarded every two years since its inception in 1991.

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References

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