Paul Crutzen, who shared Nobel Prize for ozone work, has died

Paul J Crutzen a Dutch scientist who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work understanding the ozone hole and is credited with coining the term Anthropocene to describe the geological era shaped by mankind has diedThe Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz Germany where Crutzen was the director of atmospheric chemistry from 1980 until his retirement in 2000 confirmed that he died Thursday at the age of 87ldquoPaul Crutzen was a pioneer in many waysrdquo Martin Stratmann the president of the Max Planck Society said in a statement ldquoHe was the first to show how human activities damage the ozone layerrdquoStratmann said that Crutzenrsquos work helped lay the basis for the worldwide ban on ozonedepleting substances a rare example of fundamental scientific research leading to a global political decision within just a few years Thanks to concerted international efforts the ozone hole over Antarctica has been shrinking steadilyldquoPaul Crutzen was a giant among scientists and his work proves that it is possible to do science at the very highest level while also attending to the moral political and cultural ramifications of your workrdquo said Harvard science historian Naomi Oreskes ldquoHis name and legacy will live on but his presence will be sorely missedrdquoCrutzen was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1995 together with American chemist F Sherwood Rowland and Mexican chemist Mario J MolinaldquoAlong with Sherry Rowland whom we sadly lost some years ago and Mario Molina whom we lost just months ago Crutzen alerted the world to the danger of ozone depletion caused by the pollutants known as chlorofluorocarbons from spray cansrdquo said Penn State climate scientist Michael MannMann said Crutzenrsquos coining of the term lsquoAnthropocenersquo mdash based on the ancient Greek word for human mdash in an article for Nature in 2002 ldquoso elegantly but simply captured the sobering notion that human impacts on our planet can in just decades rival the geological forces that led to mass extinctions over the eonsrdquoCrutzen had argued that because the effects of humans on the environment had escalated so greatly in the past three centuries that global climate could be significantly altered a specific term should be used to describe the period from the late 18th century to the presentThe term has since gained widespread use in scientific and environmental discourse as a way of reflecting the impact that humans have had on the planet and the daunting challenge posed by manmade climate changeCrutzen argued that managing these effects ldquowill require appropriate human behavior at all scales and may well involve internationally accepted largescale geoengineering projects for instance to lsquooptimizersquo climaterdquoBorn in Amsterdam in 1933 Crutzen first trained as an engineer before moving to Sweden in the late 1950s According to the Nobel Institute Crutzen got a job as a programmer at Stockholm Universityrsquos Department for Meteorology despite having no programming experienceWhile working at the university he began studying meteorology on the side acquiring a PhD in the field in 1968 Crutzen subsequently taught and conducted research at the University of Oxford the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado the University of Chicago and the University of CaliforniaCrutzen is survived by his wife Terttu his daughters Ilona and Sylvia and three grandchildrenThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever