Winners of Tyler Prize Announced

Contact: Carl Marziali (213) 740-2215
email: marziali@usc.edu

Two pioneers whose discoveries built the foundation for the science of climate change will share the 2005 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

The award, which includes a $200,000 cash prize and solid 10-karat gold medals, will go to professor Charles David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and to Lonnie G. Thompson, University Professor of Geology at Ohio State University.

On Thursday, April 7, at 2 p.m., the recipients will give public lectures at the Davidson Conference Center of USC, which administers the prize.

On Friday, April 8, at 7 p.m., the recipients will be honored by the Tyler Prize Executive Committee and the international environmental community during a banquet and ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles in Beverly Hills.

Keeling’s measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations worldwide provided the most important data in support of the “greenhouse effect” theory of climate change. His record of the gradual buildup in atmospheric carbon dioxide, measured in remote areas around the globe, came to be known as the Keeling curve.

He developed the first instrument able to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations accurately and reliably, which has become the standard instrument for such measurements around the world.

Keeling showed that the increase in carbon dioxide concentrations, particularly in the more heavily industrialized Northern Hemisphere, could be explained by the global combustion of fossil fuels.

He proved that the 1991 volcanic eruption at Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines caused a marked slowdown in the pace of carbon dioxide growth in the atmosphere. Keeling attributed this to a change in the rate of photosynthesis in terrestrial flora. He also explained the El Nino weather cycle’s influence on the exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the sea.

“Dr. Keeling is one of that handful of scientists whose work has brought about a change in our perception of the environment of planet Earth,” wrote Stephen Schwartz, senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and one of several peers who nominated Keeling.

“The world now recognizes the global increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations resulting from fossil fuel consumption. This recognition is so universally accepted that one tends to forget that it is due to the pioneering work of a single individual.”

Like Keeling, Thompson published research so seminal as to be taken almost for granted by scientists and laypeople today. It was Thompson who conducted the most influential study of climate records in ice cores, spending more than two decades drilling on mountaintop ice caps in several countries.

Before Thompson, knowledge about historical climatic change came primarily from deep sea sediments and polar ice studies. Both sources were of limited use for studying climate change in the most populated latitudes around the globe.

Thompson’s painstaking work, particularly on tropical glaciers, filled an important gap.

Many reasonably informed people have heard that tropical glaciers are shrinking and that the famous ice cap on Mt. Kilimanjaro may vanish in the near future. Few know the name of the man most responsible for those findings.

“For many scientists, [Thompson’s] ice cores and the global climate histories contained within them provide the first convincing demonstration that global warming exists,” wrote nominator C. Bradley Moore, vice president for research at Northwestern University.

“When he first proposed his program of drilling ice cores on tropical mountain tops, the leading glaciologists considered it completely impossible. Nonetheless, Thompson designed the equipment for drilling on mountain tops around the world and transporting ice cores to his unique facilities in Columbus, Ohio. His expeditions stretch the limits of human endurance and capability,” Moore wrote.

G. J. Wasserburg, John D. MacArthur Professor Emeritus at California Institute of Technology, wrote: “His efforts along with his wife, Ellen Stone Mosley-Thompson … have been remarkable. They also represent a kind of sensible but heroic achievement. Thompson’s contributions are legendary.”

The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is one of the premier awards for environmental science, energy and medicine.

It was established by the late John and Alice Tyler in 1973 and is awarded annually to individuals associated with world-class environmental accomplishments.

For more information on the Tyler Prize, go to: https://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/tylerprize.