Paul J. Crutzen, renowned atmospheric chemist and meteorologist, died on 28 January after a long illness. He was 87. During his inspired scientific career, he made breakthroughs that shed light on the ozone layer, air pollution, greenhouse gases, nuclear winter, and the effect of human activities on climate. Crutzen s towering academic achievements influenced environmental policies worldwide. Through it all, he maintained an open, joyful, and graceful disposition that endeared him to colleagues and students alike.
Born on 3 December 1933 to a working-class family in Amsterdam, Crutzen survived the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 (dubbed the “hunger winter”). In 1954, he earned a technical degree in civil engineering. Before leaving the Netherlands, he worked briefly as a bridge construction engineer and married the love of his life, Terttu Soininen. In 1959, an opportunity arose to move to Stockholm University and work as a computer programmer, giving Crutzen a chance to realize his
“We no longer live in the Holocene!” These words, blurted out in a moment of frustration at a scientific conference in February 2000 by the Nobel-winning scientist Paul Crutzen, effectively ended a geological era that had lasted almost 12,000 years. In its place, announced Crutzen, the atmospheric chemist who died on 28 January aged 87, was something called the “Anthropocene” – an epoch in which human activity is the dominant influence on nature. The term had been coined years before by the biologist Eugene F Stoermer. But Crutzen – who said he came up with it independently – cemented its imaginative standing, taking it from the narrow realm of stratigraphy and into common parlance. Crutzen had tapped into a truth about the vast physical and moral consequences of human activity that many felt could not be ignored.
Weather check: Paul Crutzen
Paul Crutzen, Dutch Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist, at the University of Helsinki in May 2010. Credit: Teemu Rajala / Wikicommons
Paul Crutzen, Nobel laureate and one of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists, died on 28 January 2021, at a hospital in Mainz, Germany, following several years of illness. He was 87.
Crutzen shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland, “for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone”, says the Nobel Prize organisation.
His death was announced by Martin Stratmann, president of the Max Planck Society, where Crutzen worked as director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department, in Mainz, from 1980 to 2000.
Paul Crutzen, Nobel laureate who fought climate change, dies at 87
By John Schwartz New York Times,Updated February 5, 2021, 3:11 a.m.
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Paul Crutzen.MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE/NYT
Paul J. Crutzen, a Dutch scientist who earned a Nobel Prize for work that warned the world about the threat of chemicals to the planetâs ozone layer and who went on to push for action against global warming, died Jan. 28 in Mainz, Germany. He was 87.
The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz announced the death, in a hospital, but did not state the cause. Susanne Benner, a spokeswoman for the institute, said Crutzen had been treated for Parkinsonâs disease.