23 April 2006
Susan Solomon, Senior Scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division of the Earth System Research Laboratory, has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. News of the appointment was announced in the Lonton Times on 6 April 2006.
Background and Significance: Solomon was the leading scientist in identifying the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole, an unexpected geophysical phenomenon that began in about the early 1980s. Solomon and her colleagues suggested that chemical reactions involving manmade chlorine interacting with icy clouds in the cold polar stratosphere could be responsible for the unprecedented losses of ozone during the Antarctic springtime. She then led two U.S. scientific expeditions to Antarctica in 1986 and 1987 that succeeded in providing key observations that supported her theory. In 1994, an Antarctic glacier was named in her honor in recognition of her discovery of the cause of the ozone hole, and in 1999 she received the U.S. National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor.
Solomon's recent work has included studies to unravel the connections between the severe ozone depletion in the Antarctic ozone layer and the climate at the Antarctic surface, as well as investigations of chemistry and climate processes.
Solomon's research and insights have long been a scientific cornerstone of the United Nations Montreal Protocol, the international agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. In that regard, she has been a leader in the Protocol's scientific panel that communicates the evolving scientific understanding about the ozone layer to the over 180 nations that have signed on to the Protocol. The Montreal Protocol agreement has successfully addressed the use of ozone-depleting compounds, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), throughout the world.
Solomon received her PhD degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981 and has been a research scientist at NOAA's Aeronomy Laboratory and now the ESRL Chemical Sciences Division since that time. She is the recipient of many other honors and awards, including the prestigious Blue Planet Prize; the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award; the Rossby Research Medal, the highest honor given by the American Meteorological Society; and the Montreal Protocol 10th Anniversary Award from the United Nations Environment Programme. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Academia Europaea, and a foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences.
The Royal Society of Chemistry is the leading organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences. Solomon was one of 35 scientists worldwide admitted as Fellows this year.