Wallace Smith Broecker

Wallace Smith Broecker ( " Wally " ) ( born November 29, 1931 in Chicago) is Newberry Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences ( Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences ) from Columbia University and a researcher at the Lamont - Doherty Earth Observatory there. Broecker's research areas include the geochronology of the Pleistocene, the application of radiocarbon dating and evidence of mixing processes in marine waters from different areas of origin on the basis of stable isotopes and radioisotopes. Current work in the field of Chemical Oceanography investigate the bio- geochemical carbon cycle and the geological witnesses of climate change that can be detected in the polar ice and sediments of the ocean.

Life

Broecker attended Wheaton College in Illinois, where he met John Laurence Kulp (1921-2006) and Paul Werner Guest ( 1930-1973 ). In 1953, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in physics from Columbia College and the following year the Master of Arts. In 1958 he earned a doctoral degree ( Ph.D.) in geology at Columbia University, was the following year. Assistant professor faculty member, and began his work at the Lamont - Doherty Earth Observatory, among others, W. Maurice Ewing and Walter Bucher In 1964 he became a full professor, and since 1977 he has held the position of the Newberry Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Lamont - Doherty Earth Observatory.

Work

Broecker has made significant contributions to clarify the role of the oceans in the formation of abrupt climate changes done which occurred during the last ice age. His research on the thermohaline circulation have made the concept of " assembly line " known which connects the currents in the oceans together. His work in this area is one of the foundations for the study of the carbon cycle. Broecker provided important guidance for future work by the application of radiocarbon dating to questions about the extent and characteristics of the oceans in the past ( Paleoceanography ) be authored with Tsung -Hung Peng textbook Tracers in the Sea is still cited in essays on chemical oceanography.

Broecker 1975 created without intention the expression global warming ( global warming) by an essay entitled Climate Change: Are we on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming? published. In 2008 he published with the science writer Robert Kunzig an outline of the history of climate science. In this book, the authors highlight the importance of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for the further development of the climate ( carbon sequestration ) produced, and thus support the work of Klaus Lackner Broecker colleagues. The New York Times describes Broecker considered a pioneer of geoengineering.

Honors

Broecker is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, the European Geophysical Union, and a foreign member of the Royal Society. He has received numerous other Auszeichnungnen, including:

  • The Maurice Ewing Medal of the American Geophysical Union ( 1979)
  • The Alexander Agassiz Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1986 )
  • The Urey Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry (1986 )
  • The VM Goldschmidt Award of the Geochemical Society ( 1986)
  • Vetlesen the price of the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation ( 1987)
  • The Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London ( 1990)
  • The Roger Revelle Medal of the American Geophysical Union ( 1995)
  • The National Medal of Science ( 1996)
  • The Blue Planet Prize from the Asahi Glass Foundation ( 1996)
  • The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement from the University of Southern California (2002)
  • The Crafoord Prize in Geosciences (2006), and
  • The Benjamin Franklin Medal for Earth and Environmental Science from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ( 2008).

In September 2008, Broecker was awarded the Balzan Prize for outstanding scientific achievements. In his speech raised Enric Banda (Research Professor of Geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Barcelona), the role Broecker out, " Wallace Broecker has with his discoveries about the interaction of the oceans with the atmosphere, on the role of glacial changes and the importance of the information contained in ice cores and marine sediments in an exceptional way contributed to the understanding of climate change. The findings Broecker are important for understanding not only the abrupt, but also the gradual climate changes of enormous importance. "

In January 2009, Broecker was awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2008 in the category of climate change for its basic research, which he conducted in the field of biological and chemical processes. They promoted a vision of the earth as a linked system, which is the basis for the understanding of past and current climate change. The eulogy emphasizes its holistic approach, which has enabled him the knowledge of the mechanisms of abrupt climate change.

Publications

Broecker is the author of more than 450 articles in scientific journals and has published ten books. His publishing include approximately:

  • Chemical Equilibria in the Earth. McGraw- Hill Education, 1971, ISBN 0-07-007997-8, pp. 1-304 ( with Virginia M. Oversby ).
  • Chemical oceanography. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974, ISBN 0-15-506437-1, pp. 1-214.
  • The glacial World According to Wally. Eldigio Press, 1995 ( pdf file; online version 13.4 MB).
  • Greenhouse puzzles: Keeling 's world, Martin 's world, Walker 's world. Eldigio Press, 1998.
  • Greenhouse puzzles. Lamont - Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, 1993.
  • How to Build a Habitable Planet. Eldigio Press, 1988, ISBN 0-9617511-2-6.
  • Tracers in the Sea. Eldigio Press, 1982, ISBN 0-9617511 -0- X ( with Tsung -Hung Peng ).
  • Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat - and How to Counter it. Hill and Wang, U.S. / Profile Books, UK, 2008, ISBN 0-8090-4501- X ( U.S.), 978-1846688607 (UK ) ( with Robert Kunzig ).
  • The Great Ocean Conveyor, Discovering the Trigger for Abrupt Climate Change. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 2010.
  • With Charles H. Langmuir: How to Build a Habitable Planet. The Story of Earth from the Big Bang to Humankind. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 2012.
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