- Hans Oeschger
Professor Hans Oeschger (1927 – 1998) was the founder of the Division of Climate and Environmental Physics at the Physics Institute of the
University of Bern in 1963 and director until his retirement in 1992.Oeschger was the first to date the "age" of Pacific deep water. The
Oeschger counter was the leading instrument for many years which enabled the Oeschger's team to measure the activity of naturally occurring radioisotopes (3H, 14C, 26Al, 37Ar, 39Ar, 81Kr, 85Kr).Oeschger was a pioneer and leader in ice core research. In collaboration with his colleagues he was the first to measure the glacial-interglacial change of atmospheric CO2. They showed in 1979 that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 during the glacial was almost 50% lower than today.
Together with his colleagues
Chester C. Langway andWilli Dansgaard , he documented a series of abruptclimate change s in theGreenland ice core s now known asDansgaard-Oeschger events .Hans Oeschger was deeply troubled by the potential of an increased
greenhouse effect caused by the steady increase of atmospheric CO2. He was a concerned citizen who took seriously his responsibility as a scientist towards society. He said: “The worst for me would be, if there were serious changes in the next 5 to 10 years and we scientists are helpless and did not have the courage to point at these dangerous developments early.”He was a Lead Author of the First Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .The
European Geophysical Society established the Hans Oeschger Medal in his honour in 2001 [http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/awards/hans_oeschger_overview.html] .The centre of excellence for climate research at the
University of Bern ("Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research" [http://www.oeschger.unibe.ch/index_en.html] ), which was founded in 2007, is named after Hans Oeschger.Awards
* Harold Urey Medal, 1987
* Seligman Crystal, 1991
*Marcel-Benoist Prize , 1991
*Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement , 1996
*Revelle Medal of theAmerican Geophysical Union , 1997External links
* [http://www.climate.unibe.ch/oeschger/obituary.html Obituary]
* [http://www.oeschger.unibe.ch/index_en.html Official website of the "Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research"]
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