Biographical Statements: Speakers
and Moderators
Prof. Ronald G Prinn
TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Earth,
Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences;
Director, Center for Global Change Science;
Co-Director, Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Prinn's research interests incorporate the chemistry, dynamics,
and physics of the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets, and the
chemical evolution of atmospheres. He headed the MIT Department of Earth,
Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences from 1998 to 2003. He is currently
involved in a wide range of projects in atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry,
planetary science, climate science, and integrated assessment of science
and policy regarding climate change. He leads the Advanced Global Atmospheric
Gases Experiment (AGAGE ), in which the rates of change of the concentrations
of the trace gases involved in the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion
have been measured continuously over the globe for the past two decades.
He is pioneering the use of inverse methods, which use such measurements
and three-dimensional models to determine trace gas emissions and understand
atmospheric chemical processes, especially those processes involving
the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere. He is also working extensively
with social scientists to link the science and policy aspects of global
change. He has made significant contributions to the development of
national and international scientific research programs in global change.
He has served as Chairman for Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and
has chaired the Steering Committees for the IGBP/IAMAP International
Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project, the U.S. National Research Council
(NRC) Committee on Earth Sciences, and the U.S. Global Tropospheric
Chemistry Program. He has been a member of the Steering Committees of
the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), and the NASA Network
for Detection of Stratospheric Change, and a member of the IAMAP International
Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution, the NRC Space
Science Board, the NRC Committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere
Program, the NASA Space Science and Applications Advisory Committee,
and the NASA Earth System Sciences Committee. He is a Fellow of the
American Geophysical Union (AGU), a recipient of AGU's Macelwane Medal,
and a Fellow of the AAAS. He has published over 160 scientific papers,
co-authored Planets and their Atmospheres: Origin and Evolution (Academic
Press), and edited or co-edited Global Atmospheric-Biospheric Chemistry
(Plenum), Atmospheric Chemistry in a Changing World (Springer), and
Inverse Methods in Global Biogeochemical Cycles (AGU). (Sc.D., '71,
MIT; M.S., '68, B.S., '67, University of Auckland, New Zealand).
