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LECTURE SERIES

A lecture series is being established by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Keeling family to honor Dave Keeling and to recognize the high standard he set for scientific research. The intent of the lectures, to be held at Scripps, is to focus continuing attention on climate research and on the challenges of global environmental change.

 

CHARLES KEELING

Climate Science Pioneer

Charles David Keeling, the world's leading authority on atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulation and climate science pioneer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography since 1956, died of a heart attack on June 20, 2005, while at his Montana home. He was 77 years old.

Research

Keeling

Keeling was the first to confirm the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide by very precise measurements producing a data set now known widely as the "Keeling Curve." Prior to his investigations, it was unknown whether the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities would accumulate in the atmosphere instead of being fully absorbed by the oceans and vegetated areas on land. He became the first to determine definitively the fraction of carbon dioxide from combustion that remains in the atmosphere. The Keeling record of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and at other "pristine air" locations, represents what many believe to be the most important time-series data set for the study of global change.

Honors and Awards

In 2002, President George W. Bush selected Keeling to receive the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific research. In its awards announcement, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which administers the National Medals of Science for the White House, noted that Keeling "pioneered studies on the impact of the carbon cycle to changes in climate, collecting some of the most important data in the study of global climate change." As a result of his National Medal of Science honor, the San Diego Press Club named Keeling the science "Headliner of the Year."

In 1997, Keeling was honored at a White House ceremony by then-Vice President Al Gore with a special achievement award "for forty years of outstanding scientific research associated with monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide in connection with the Mauna Loa Observatory." In April 2005, Keeling received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, considered to be the world's most distinguished award in environmental science