Two past and present IPCC Bureau members have won the 2012 Vetlesen Prize for their work on the ozone hole and ice cores. Susan Solomon, Co-Chair of Working Group I from 2002 to 2008, and Jean Jouzel, Vice-Chair of Working Group I since 2008, share the $250,000 award, considered to be the earth sciences equivalent of a Nobel Prize. “Earth Science is a collective enterprise, and transformational advances are the product of many authors,” said the Vetlesen Prize committee’s citation. “Both nominees have made leading and fundamental contributions to climate science.” Solomon was honoured for her work in identifying the cause of Antarctica’s springtime ozone losses, which helped bring about a global ban on manmade ozone- depleting chemicals. Jouzel has extracted the longest-yet climate record from polar ice cores, charting temperatures in Antarctica for the past 800,000 years.
Solomon, currently Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has also been awarded the fifth BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the climate change category. Solomon received the award for her work on determining how human action alters the composition of the atmosphere and how, in turn, these changes affect Earth’s climate. The award citation states that Solomon “has contributed, through her research and leadership, to the safeguarding of our planet.”