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Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 2002 for Lonnie G. Thompson

April 15, 2002

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
has awarded the
Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 2002
(USD 150,000) to
Professor Lonnie G. Thompson
Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, United States
‘for his pioneering work in research into ice cores in the polar regions and the tropics’.

The subject
Lonnie Thompson is convinced that ice forms the best archive of the earth’s climate. And that frozen history is located not only at the North and South Poles, but also in the tropics – for example at the peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro, where the ice caps are in fact melting rapidly. Thompson was one of the first to realise that global warming poses a threat to a number of the world’s ice archives. Partly because of this, gathering data is high on his list of priorities. He has often moved heaven and earth to gain permission to work with his drilling team in a particular location. Under the most extreme conditions, at altitudes where even mountaineers can barely survive, he has succeeded in collecting ice cores. His ice samples come from all over the world: from Bolivia, Peru, China and a host of other locations. The freezers in his laboratory, where Thompson analyses the ice, are now full to overflowing.

The information on the climate and the atmosphere which is stored in the ice can go back 700,000 years. The ice contains a clear record of phenomena such as El Ni'�o and the Asian Monsoon, for example; in a somewhat similar way to tree rings, except that the ice history goes much further back in time and contains much more information. Thompson’s research provides an insight into natural climate change, ultimately making it possible to assess the effects of human beings on the earth’s climate, something which has been a source of heated debate among researchers for many years.

The Prize-winner
Lonnie Thompson was born in 1948 in Huntington, West Virginia and graduated in geology in 1973 from Ohio State University, to which he has remained attached since then. He obtained his doctorate there in 1976 (based on research into micro-particles in ice and the climate), and in 1994 he became a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. Thompson is also closely involved in the research of the Byrd Polar Research Center at his university. He is very productive, and the results of his research regularly appear in the journals Nature and Science.
Thompson also sits on a number of advisory bodies in the field of the climate; he is a member of the editorial team of several journals, a member of a number of international partnerships, and leads one or more research expeditions every year. In 2001 Time Magazine and cnn added his name to the list of ‘America’s Best in Science and Medicine’. Thompson also works hard to ensure that the findings of his research are brought to the attention of politicians and the public at large.
More information can be found at the following websites: http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~bchristn/html/the_ice_group.html and via http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/.

The Prize
The Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences has been awarded every two years since 1990. Previous Prize-winners have included James Lovelock, Colin Bibby (from the organisation Birdlife International) and Paul Ehrlich. Further background information can be found on the website of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences: http://www.knaw.nl/heinekenprizes

The awards ceremony
The Heineken Prizes are presented every two years during a special session of the Academy. This year’s awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday, 24 September 2002 in the Beurs van Berlage building in Amsterdam.

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

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