Speaker: Ralph Cicerone

Ralph J. Cicerone  is President of the National Academy of Sciences and Chair of the National Research Council.  His research has focused on atmospheric chemistry, the radiative forcing of climate change due to trace gases, and the sources of atmospheric methane, nitrous oxide and methyl halide gases.  The Franklin Institute recognized his fundamental contributions to the understanding of greenhouse gases and ozone depletion and his public policy leadership to protect the global environment with the 1999 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science.  The American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest society of earth scientists, awarded Dr. Cicerone
its 1979 James B. Macelwane Award for outstanding contributions to geophysics by a young scientist and its 2002 Roger Revelle Medal for outstanding research contributions to the understanding of Earth’s atmospheric processes, biogeochemical cycles, and key elements of the climate system.  The World Cultural Council honored him with the 2004 Albert Einstein World Award in Science.  Cicerone is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and Academia Sinica.  In 2007 the Ralph J. Cicerone Distinguished University Professorship of Atmospheric Science was established in his honor at the University of Michigan.  He conducted research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (1978-1980), at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado (1980-1989), and at the University of California, Irvine, where he was founding chair of the Department of Earth System Science (1989-1994), Dean of the School of Physical Sciences (1994-1998), Chancellor (1998-2005), and the Daniel G. Aldrich Professor of Earth System Science.  His University of Illinois PhD was granted in 1970 (Electrical Engineering with a minor in Physics).

VIDEO OF THE 2010 LECTURE CAN BE FOUND HERE.