(Toon, Owen Brian - 2009) -- Robert L. Stearns Award
Overview
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Professor Toon has devoted his career to raising awareness about the atmospheric effects of nuclear war and ozone depletion. His asteroid impact study led to the discovery of the nuclear winter phenomena, which has played a role in nuclear weapons reductions in the United States and the USSR since 1986. In 2006, he became the founding chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. During the past 20 years, he has managed a range of large, complex NASA field missions, bringing together scientists from other universities as well as NASA and governmental agencies and coordinating multiple aircraft and ground stations. Professor Toon has twice received NASA’s medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement for studies of the climates of Earth and other planets and for his work on the ozone hole. He was a co-winner of the American Physical Society’s Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest for his work on nuclear winter and has been elected a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He was also recognized by ISI Thomson Scientific for being one of the most highly cited, influential geosciences researchers in 2002.
