Wallace S. Broecker
| Wallace Smith Broecker | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
November 29, 1931 Chicago, Illinois |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | Geochronology, chemical oceanography, climate |
| Institutions | Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory |
| Alma mater | Wheaton College, Illinois |
| Notable awards |
Vetlesen Prize (1987) National Medal of Science Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science Alexander Agassiz Medal (1986) Urey Medal (1990) Wollaston Medal (1990) Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2002) Crafoord Prize (2006) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2008) |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Clark |
Wallace Smith Broecker (born November 29, 1931 in Chicago) is the Newberry Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, a scientist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a sustainability fellow at Arizona State University. He developed the idea of a global "conveyor belt" linking the circulation of the global ocean and made major contributions to the science of the carbon cycle and the use of chemical tracers and isotope dating in oceanography. Broecker has received the Crafoord Prize and the Vetlesen Prize.
Broecker's areas of research include geochronology, radiocarbon dating and chemical oceanography, including oceanic mixing based on stable and radioisotope distribution. This includes research on the biogeochemical cycles of the element carbon and on the record of climate change contained in polar ice and ocean sediments.
Broecker has authored over 450 journal articles and 10 books. He is perhaps best known for his discovery of the role played by the ocean in triggering the abrupt climate changes which punctuated glacial time, in particular the development and popularization of the idea of a global "conveyor belt" linking the circulation of the global ocean. However, his contributions stretch far beyond the "conveyor"; his work is the foundation of carbon cycle science, and his applications of radiocarbon to paleoceanography are landmarks in the field. His work with chemical tracers in the ocean is integral to modern chemical oceanography; indeed, his textbook "Tracers in the Sea", authored with Tsung-Hung Peng, is still cited in the contemporary literature 25 years after its publication.
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