Wallace S. Broecker
Encyclopedia
Wallace Smith Broecker is the Newberry Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University
and a scientist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
. He developed the idea of a global "conveyor belt"
linking the circulation of the global ocean and made major contributions to the science of the carbon cycle
and the use of chemical tracers and isotope dating in oceanography. Broecker has received the Crafoord Prize
and the Vetlesen Prize
.
geochronology
, radiocarbon dating
and chemical oceanography
, including oceanic mixing based on stable
and radioisotope distribution. This includes research on the biogeochemical cycle
s of the element carbon
and on the record of climate change
contained in polar ice and ocean sediments.
He attended Wheaton College and interacted with J. Laurence Kulp
and Paul Gast
. At Wheaton, he met his wife Grace Carder. Broecker then transferred to Columbia University
. At Columbia, he worked at the Lamont Geological Observatory
with W. Maurice Ewing
and Walter Bucher
.
Broecker has 6 children and 7 grandchildren. His wife Grace passed away in 2007, they were together for 53 years.
Broecker has authored over 450 journal articles and 10 books. He is perhaps best known for his discovery of the role played by the ocean in triggering the abrupt climate change
s which punctuated glacial time- in particular, the development and popularization of the idea of a global "conveyor belt"
linking the circulation of the global ocean. However, his contributions stretch far beyond the "conveyor"; his work is the foundation of carbon cycle science, and his applications of radiocarbon to paleoceanography are landmarks in the field. His work with chemical tracers in the ocean is integral to modern chemical oceanography; indeed, his textbook "Tracers in the Sea", authored with Tsung-Hung Peng, is still cited in the contemporary literature 25 years after its publication.
Broecker writes about his research, on mode changes in the thermohaline circulation: "We have clear evidence that different parts of the earth's climate system are linked in very subtle yet dramatic ways. The climate system has jumped from one mode of operation to another in the past. We are trying to understand how the earth's climate system is engineered, so we can understand what it takes to trigger mode switches. Until we do, we cannot make good predictions about future climate change."
Broecker is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and the National Academy of Sciences
, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
and European Geophysical Union
. He has received the Crafoord Prize
in Geoscience, the National Medal of Science
in 1996, Maurice W. Ewing Medal
of the American Geophysical Union
, the Alexander Agassiz Medal
of the National Academy of Sciences
, the Urey Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry
, the V.M. Goldschmidt Award from the Geochemical Society
, the Vetlesen Prize
from the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation, the Wollaston Medal
of the Geological Society of London
, the Roger Revelle Medal
of the American Geophysical Union
, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
from the University of Southern California
, the Blue Planet Prize from The Asahi Glass Foundation, and the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science from The Franklin Institute
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1975, Broecker inadvertently coined the phrase global warming
when he published a paper titled: “Climate Change: Are we on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” He has recently co-written an account of climate science with the science journalist, Robert Kunzig. This includes a discussion of the work of Broecker's Columbia colleague Klaus Lackner
in capturing CO2 from the atmosphere - which Broecker believes must play a vital role in reducing emissions and countering global warming. Broecker has been described in the New York Times as a geoengineering
pioneer.
In September 2008 Broecker was the recipient of the Balzan Prize
for outstanding achievement in science. His citation was made by Enric Banda (Research Professor of Geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Barcelona): “For his extraordinary contributions to the understanding of climate change through his discoveries concerning the role of the oceans and their interactions with the atmosphere, as well as the role of glacial changes and the records contained in ice cores and ocean sediments. His contributions have been significant in understanding both gradual and abrupt climate change”.
In January 2009, Broecker was awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change category for his seminal research into the oceans’ biological and chemical processes that pioneered the development of Earth System Science as the basis for understanding global climate change, both past and present. The award certificate also highlights “his holistic approach”, which has led him to identify “the mechanisms of abrupt climate change”.
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and a scientist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory is a research unit of Columbia University located on a campus in Palisades, N.Y., north of Manhattan on the Hudson River.- History :...
. He developed the idea of a global "conveyor belt"
Thermohaline circulation
The term thermohaline circulation refers to a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes....
linking the circulation of the global ocean and made major contributions to the science of the carbon cycle
Carbon cycle
The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth...
and the use of chemical tracers and isotope dating in oceanography. Broecker has received the Crafoord Prize
Crafoord Prize
The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord...
and the Vetlesen Prize
Vetlesen Prize
The Vetlesen Prize is awarded from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation.-Background:The Vetlesen Prize has been described as an attempt to establish an equivalent of a Nobel award for geophysics or geology...
.
Biography
Broecker's areas of research include PleistocenePleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
geochronology
Geochronology
Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments, within a certain degree of uncertainty inherent to the method used. A variety of dating methods are used by geologists to achieve this, and schemes of classification and terminology have been proposed...
, radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
and chemical oceanography
Chemical oceanography
Chemical oceanography is the study of ocean chemistry: the behavior of the chemical elements within the Earth's oceans. The ocean is unique in that it contains - in greater or lesser quantities - nearly every element in the periodic table....
, including oceanic mixing based on stable
Stable isotope
Stable isotopes are chemical isotopes that may or may not be radioactive, but if radioactive, have half-lives too long to be measured.Only 90 nuclides from the first 40 elements are energetically stable to any kind of decay save proton decay, in theory...
and radioisotope distribution. This includes research on the biogeochemical cycle
Biogeochemical cycle
In ecology and Earth science, a biogeochemical cycle or substance turnover or cycling of substances is a pathway by which a chemical element or molecule moves through both biotic and abiotic compartments of Earth. A cycle is a series of change which comes back to the starting point and which can...
s of the element carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
and on the record of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
contained in polar ice and ocean sediments.
He attended Wheaton College and interacted with J. Laurence Kulp
J. Laurence Kulp
John Laurence Kulp was a 20th century geochemist. He led major studies on the effects of nuclear fallout and acid rain. He was a prominent advocate in American Scientific Affiliation circles in favor of an Old Earth and against the pseudoscience of flood geology...
and Paul Gast
Paul Werner Gast
Paul Werner Gast was an American geochemist and geologist.He was born in Chicago, and attended Wheaton College, Illinois from whence he graduated in 1952. He earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1957...
. At Wheaton, he met his wife Grace Carder. Broecker then transferred to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. At Columbia, he worked at the Lamont Geological Observatory
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory is a research unit of Columbia University located on a campus in Palisades, N.Y., north of Manhattan on the Hudson River.- History :...
with W. Maurice Ewing
Maurice Ewing
William Maurice "Doc" Ewing was an American geophysicist and oceanographer.Ewing has been described as a pioneering geophysicist who worked on the research of seismic reflection and refraction in ocean basins, ocean bottom photography, submarine sound transmission , deep sea coring of the ocean...
and Walter Bucher
Walter Hermann Bucher
Dr. Walter Hermann Bucher was a German-American geologist and paleontologist.He was born in Akron, Ohio of Swiss-German parents. The family then returned to Germany where he was raised. In 1911 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Heidelberg with a focus on geology and paleontology. The...
.
Broecker has 6 children and 7 grandchildren. His wife Grace passed away in 2007, they were together for 53 years.
Broecker has authored over 450 journal articles and 10 books. He is perhaps best known for his discovery of the role played by the ocean in triggering the abrupt climate change
Abrupt climate change
An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new state at a rate that is determined by the climate system itself, and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing...
s which punctuated glacial time- in particular, the development and popularization of the idea of a global "conveyor belt"
Thermohaline circulation
The term thermohaline circulation refers to a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes....
linking the circulation of the global ocean. However, his contributions stretch far beyond the "conveyor"; his work is the foundation of carbon cycle science, and his applications of radiocarbon to paleoceanography are landmarks in the field. His work with chemical tracers in the ocean is integral to modern chemical oceanography; indeed, his textbook "Tracers in the Sea", authored with Tsung-Hung Peng, is still cited in the contemporary literature 25 years after its publication.
Broecker writes about his research, on mode changes in the thermohaline circulation: "We have clear evidence that different parts of the earth's climate system are linked in very subtle yet dramatic ways. The climate system has jumped from one mode of operation to another in the past. We are trying to understand how the earth's climate system is engineered, so we can understand what it takes to trigger mode switches. Until we do, we cannot make good predictions about future climate change."
Broecker is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
and the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
and European Geophysical Union
European Geosciences Union
The European Geosciences Union is an interdisciplinary non-profit learned society open to individuals who are professionally engaged in or associated with geosciences, planetary and space sciences, and related studies.The mission statement of the EGU is "Dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in...
. He has received the Crafoord Prize
Crafoord Prize
The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord...
in Geoscience, the National Medal of Science
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
in 1996, Maurice W. Ewing Medal
Maurice Ewing Medal
The Maurice Ewing Medal is awarded by the American Geophysical Union for "significant original contributions to the understanding of physical, geophysical, and geological processes in the ocean; to those who advance oceanographic engineering, technology, and instrumentation; and to those who...
of the American Geophysical Union
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
, the Alexander Agassiz Medal
Alexander Agassiz Medal
The Alexander Agassiz Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for an original contribution in the science of oceanography. It was established by Sir John Murray in honor of his friend Alexander Agassiz.-Recipients:-References:NotesA...
of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, the Urey Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry
European Association of Geochemistry
The European Association of Geochemistry is a pan-European organization founded to promotes geochemical research. The EAG organizes conferences, meetings and educational courses for geochemists in Europe, including the Goldschmidt conference which it co-sponsors with the North American Geochemical...
, the V.M. Goldschmidt Award from the Geochemical Society
Geochemical Society
The Geochemical Society is a nonprofit and international scientific society for the purpose of encouraging the application of chemistry to solve problems involving geology and cosmology...
, the Vetlesen Prize
Vetlesen Prize
The Vetlesen Prize is awarded from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation.-Background:The Vetlesen Prize has been described as an attempt to establish an equivalent of a Nobel award for geophysics or geology...
from the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation, the Wollaston Medal
Wollaston Medal
The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
of the Geological Society of London
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
, the Roger Revelle Medal
Roger Revelle Medal
The Roger Revelle Medal is given out annually by the American Geophysical Union to recognize "outstanding accomplishments or contributions toward the understanding of the Earth’s atmospheric processes, including its dynamics, chemistry, and radiation; and toward the role of the atmosphere,...
of the American Geophysical Union
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is an award for environmental science, environmental health and energy. Tyler Laureates receive a $200,000 annual prize and a gold medallion...
from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, the Blue Planet Prize from The Asahi Glass Foundation, and the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science from The Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1975, Broecker inadvertently coined the phrase global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
when he published a paper titled: “Climate Change: Are we on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” He has recently co-written an account of climate science with the science journalist, Robert Kunzig. This includes a discussion of the work of Broecker's Columbia colleague Klaus Lackner
Klaus Lackner
Klaus Lackner is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University and co-founder of in Tucson, AZ. Lackner pioneered the concept of carbon dioxide air capture as a means for climate change mitigation, i.e. abating emissions of greenhouse gases into the...
in capturing CO2 from the atmosphere - which Broecker believes must play a vital role in reducing emissions and countering global warming. Broecker has been described in the New York Times as a geoengineering
Geoengineering
The concept of Geoengineering refers to the deliberate large-scale engineering and manipulation of the planetary environment to combat or counteract anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2007 that geoengineering options, such...
pioneer.
In September 2008 Broecker was the recipient of the Balzan Prize
Balzan Prize
The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.-Rewards and assets:Each year the...
for outstanding achievement in science. His citation was made by Enric Banda (Research Professor of Geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Barcelona): “For his extraordinary contributions to the understanding of climate change through his discoveries concerning the role of the oceans and their interactions with the atmosphere, as well as the role of glacial changes and the records contained in ice cores and ocean sediments. His contributions have been significant in understanding both gradual and abrupt climate change”.
In January 2009, Broecker was awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change category for his seminal research into the oceans’ biological and chemical processes that pioneered the development of Earth System Science as the basis for understanding global climate change, both past and present. The award certificate also highlights “his holistic approach”, which has led him to identify “the mechanisms of abrupt climate change”.
External links
- Glaciers That Speak in Tongues and other tales of global warming, by Wallace S. Broecker
- Publications by Wally Broecker available for download
- Interview with Wally Broecker, August 31, 2008
- Oral History interview transcript with Wallace S. Broecker 14 November 1997, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
- Oral History interview transcript with Wallace S. Broecker 29 December 1995, 8 May & 6 June 1997, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
- BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards