The 105th Distinguished Research Lecture will be presented on Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. in the Cristol Chemistry 140 auditorium. The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder bestows upon a fellow faculty member, and the highest honor bestowed upon a faculty member by the Graduate School. Its purpose is to honor and recognize an entire body of creative work and research.
This year’s recipient of the award, Dr. Owen Brian Toon, will present “Dead Dinosaurs and Nuclear Wars.” Dr. Toon was awarded the American Physical Society’s 1985 Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest for his work on nuclear winter. He studies radiative transfer, aerosol and cloud physics, atmospheric chemistry and parallels between the Earth and planets.
Dr. Toon has been a part of the University campus for many years and is currently a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences for which he was the founding Chair. Toon helped conceive, develop and lead many NASA airborne field missions aimed at understanding stratosphere volcanic clouds, the ozone hole, the effects of aircraft on the atmosphere, and the role of convective and cirrus clouds in Earth’s climate system. In 2011 he was honored with the American Geophysical Union’s Roger Revelle Medal for work in atmospheric science and climate.
A reception in the CIRES Atrium will follow the the presentation.
