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Donald J. Wuebbles is Director of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment at the University of Illinois. He is also a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences as well as in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences from 1994 until he took on his new duties in 2006. He was also the first Director of the Environmental Council at the University of Illinois, from 1996 until August 1999; as Director, he was responsible for the oversight and development of educational and research programs across the University of Illinois relating to the environment. Professor Wuebbles earned his B.S. (1970) and M.S. (1972) degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He received his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of California at Davis in 1983. Professor Wuebbles spent many years as a research scientist and group leader at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before returning to the University of Illinois in 1994.
Professor Wuebbles is the author of almost 400 scientific articles, most of which relate to the interactions of atmospheric chemistry and physical processes affecting atmospheric composition (e.g., tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, urban air quality), resulting radiative forcing on climate, and the effects on the climate system resulting from both human activities and natural phenomena. His research emphasizes the development and use of mathematical models of the chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere that affect all of these processes. Through his research, Professor Wuebbles has had a number of important science contributions and “firsts” during his career. Some of his early contributions include studies of the importance of both temperature feedback and multiple scattering on stratospheric composition, and a study demonstrating “diurnal” behavior of trace gases during a solar eclipse that led to a NASA measurement campaign during a solar eclipse. He developed one of the first comprehensive urban air quality models (which was used in the first study of its kind showing the VOC-limited (VOC = volatile organic compounds) behavior of ozone formation in the San Francisco area. In the last 1970s, he authored the most complete analysis of the effects of nuclear tests on stratospheric ozone done to date.
Professor Wuebbles’ research has had a direct impact on policies to protect the ozone layer. His early 1980s analyses of a broad range of halocarbon future scenarios had a significant impact on early ozone policy considerations. During that time period, he also developed the concept of Ozone Depletion Potentials used in most policymaking aimed at protection of the ozone layer (e.g., the Montreal Protocol and its amendments, the U.S. Clean Air Act). He coauthored a series of papers on trends in stratospheric ozone, including the first to statistically prove that a decrease in stratospheric ozone was occurring in the early 1980s. These papers as a key member of the Tiger Team, a small group of scientists and statisticians, were recognized much later by Professor Wuebbles receiving the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2005. Professor Wuebbles also coauthored the 1986 paper that provided the basic principles explaining the existence of the Antarctic ozone hole. Professor Wuebbles’ graphic of the effects of our evolving understanding of atmospheric chemistry and physics on ozone perturbations during the 1970s and 1980s is still used extensively to point out the historical process of learning in science. His 1991 paper on the relationship between solar flux variations and upper stratospheric ozone changes was the first to capture these interactions accurately. More recently, he also developed the revised concept for ODPs to account for the effects of short-lived halocarbons on ozone. For these many accomplishments, Professor Wuebbles was elected a member of the International Ozone Commission in 2000.
As a lead author on the first and second international assessments of climate change sponsored by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor Wuebbles co-authored development of the Global Warming Potentials concept being used in policy considerations on greenhouse gases and their potential effects on climate; this concept is included in the Kyoto Protocol and most carbon trading applications. In a paper combining observations with theory, Professor Wuebbles provided the first analysis showing that observed trends in lower stratospheric temperature can be explained in terms of the observed trends in ozone and carbon dioxide. In more recent studies, mostly with his students, Professor Wuebbles has used satellite-based trends of several gases to show that the dynamics of the stratosphere is being changed by climate change and that changes in climate could have a significant impact on air quality in the U.S.
Professor Wuebbles has been a lead author on a number of national and international assessments related to concerns about stratospheric ozone (including the recently WMO published Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2006) and about climate change, and is also a lead author on several assessments of the effects of current and projected subsonic and supersonic aircraft on the global environment. He chaired a major workshop on the aviation effects on climate for the FAA and NASA in 2006 that is now resulting in considerations for a new research program in the U.S. to better understand these issues. In 2007, he co-chaired the Climate Panel for a major workshop for the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization. Dr. Wuebbles has also led committees reviewing various programs in the U.S. Department of Energy and at its national laboratories. At the regional level, Dr. Wuebbles co-led an assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes region, and more recently, coauthored a similar assessment of the U.S. Northeast .He just completed a new assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on the city of Chicago for Mayor Daley. Amongst his honors, Dr. Wuebbles is a Faculty Fellow in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. In 2007, Prof. Wuebbles was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He, along with many others, shares in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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