Paul J. Crutzen

Awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry 1995 for his work on atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.

Born in 1933 in Amsterdam, Paul J. Crutzen was trained as a civil engineer and worked with the Bridge Construction Bureau of the City of Amsterdam.

In 1959 he joined Stockholm University to study meteorology and atmospheric chemistry. His research has been especially concerned with the natural and anthropogenically disturbed photochemistry of ozone in the stratosphere and troposphere. Thereby he identified the importance of nitrogen oxides emitted by fossil fuel and and biomass burning, especially in the tropics, as important sources of air pollution with potential impacts on ozone and Earth climate.

He served as Director of Research at the National Center of Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, 1977-1980, and thereafter – until his retirement – (1980-2000) at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz. Until April 2008 he did part-time research at the University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 1995 he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on atmospheric ozone.

Since his retirement, Crutzen has been doing research on the climate effects of biofuel production and geo-engineering. Crutzen introduced the term “Anthropocene” as a new geological epoch, increasingly dominated by human activities.