Scripps Official Wins Oceanography Award

UC San Diego professor Roger Revelle, known for his pioneering work on the buildup of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, has been named a winner of the 1986 Balzan Prize for oceanography and climatology by the International Balzan Foundation of Milan, Italy.

His research led to the first general awareness that industrialization would have adverse effects on the Earth’s climate, a phenomenon that came to be known as the greenhouse effect.

The award includes a medal and a $165,000 cash prize. The prestigious prize was established in 1961.

Revelle, 77, is UCSD professor of science and public policy and director emeritus of the UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He was instrumental in founding the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research during World War II, a precursor to postwar civilian oceanographic studies.

He also pioneered research in population control research by founding the Harvard University Center for Population Studies in 1964, which he directed until 1975.

Revelle and Scripps marine chemist Hans Suess discovered during the 1950s that only half of the carbon dioxide released by fossil fuel burning was absorbed by the world’s oceans, contrary to the 98% absorption that scientists had previously thought to be true.

Under Revelle’s prodding, a program was instituted to collect air samples on a continuous basis from the top of Mauna Loa in Hawaii and at the South Pole. The program, still ongoing today, represents the main source of data used to determine the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Revelle has chaired several presidential and National Academy of Sciences committees that have detailed possible effects of carbon dioxide, including potential sea-level rises and increases in global temperatures.