Environmental Sciences

Lonnie G. Thompson was awarded the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 2002 for his pioneering work in research into ice cores in the polar regions and the tropics.
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 Niño 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.

Further reading
Thompson, L.G. and Mosley-Thompson E., Microparticle concentration variations linked with climatic change: evidence from polar ice cores. Science212 (1981) 812-815.
Thompson, L.G., Davis M., Mosley-Thompson E., Liu K., Pre-Incan agricultural activity recorded in dust layers in two tropical ice cores. Nature 336 (1988) 763-765.
Thompson, L.G., Yao T., Davis M.E., Henderson K.A., Mosley-Thompson E., Lin P.N., Beer J., Synal H.A., Cole-Dai J., Bolzan J.F., Tropical Climate Instability: The Last Glacial Cycle from a Qinghai-Tibetan Ice Core. Science 276 (1997) 1821-1827.
Thompson, L.G., Davis M.E., Mosley-Thompson E., Sowers T.A., Henderson K.A., Zagorodnov V.S., Lin P.N., Mikhalenko V.N., Campen R.K., Bolzan J.F., Francou B., Cole-Dai J., A 25,000 Year Tropical Climate History from Bolivian Ice Cores. Science 282 (1998) 1858-1864.
Thompson, L.G., Yao T., Thompson E.M., Davis M.E., Henderson K.A., Lin P.N., A high-resolution millennial record of the South Asian monsoon from Himalayan ice cores. Science 289 (2000) 1916-1919.

Biography
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.

Poul Harremoës was awarded the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 2000 for his contributions to the theory of biofilm kinetics in relation to biological waste water treatment and for his successful organisation of the international scientific community in water pollution research and control.
Poul Harremoës belongs to the pioneers who tried to track down pollution with radioactive tracers. As head of the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark, he has contributed to making this department one of the biggest and broadest university departments world-wide and an acknowledged world leader in the field. Dominant fields of research have been oxygen depletion in rivers, nitrification-denitrification and biofilm kinetics applied to waste water treatment. Professor Harremoës organises scientific co-operation in water pollution research and control on an international scale in the International Association for Water Pollution Research and Control, IAWPRC (now International Water Association, IWA).

About the laureate
Poul Harremoës was born in Denmark in 1934. He graduated from the Technical University of Denmark in 1957 and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959. He became a full professor at the Technical University of Denmark in 1972 and the head of the Department of Environmental Engineering. Professor Harremoës has lectured all over the world. He received the Stockholm Water Prize on behalf of the Department in 1992. Professor Harremoës has initiated and organised numerous international conferences and has been a member of the scientific committees for many such conferences. He joined the Scientific Committee of the European Environmental Agency in 1994.
Poul Harremoës died 26 November 2003.

Paul R. Ehrlich has been awarded the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 1998 in recognition of contributing to scientific knowledge of environmental problems, and for raising public awareness of them.
Together with his wife Anne Ehrlich, Professor Ehrlich has been writing about environmental threats, including the explosive growth of world population, for thirty years. His publications have been a significant source of inspiration to the Club of Rome. The essence of his argument has always been that population growth and man’s exploitation of natural resources form a serious threat to the environment. Ehrlich has propagated his ideas consistently and scientifically. It is his combination of the roles of scientist and activist that makes him unique. Many are concerned with the environment, but few can speak with such scientific authority. The essence of Ehrlich’s thesis is that population growth and man’s husbandry over the earth’s resources form a serious threat to the economic options that the environment offers mankind, to the vital ecosystem services (such as atmospheric integrity, soil quality and biodiversity) and to the aesthetic values. Ehrlich has dealt with virtually every sort of ecological crisis, from declining biodiversity to habitat destruction, deforestation, nuclear waste, the hole in the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect. But Ehrlich is not content to analyse issues or publicise problems. He also suggests concrete solutions, bearing in mind the social, political and economic obstacles. Furthermore he has always been prepared to revise his projections and predictions in light of new facts and interpretations, especially when it comes to the relationship between population growth and agricultural production. Paul Ehrlich is an outstanding ecologist and visionary scientist. Thanks to his ability to communicate his scientific insights to the causes and consequences of the environmental crisis, he has raised the level of the scientific and social debate on man’s relationship with the planet.

Biography
Professor Paul R. Ehrlich (1932) has had considerable influence on the development of environmental sciences. Ehrlich started out as a fundamental biologist, specialising in population biology and the relationship between plants and animals. In that field, as well, he can boast a sizeable oeuvre. Indeed his scientific background accounts for much of his credibility. He has promulgated his ideas through an impressive series of scientific publications, lectures and articles in journals, newspapers and other periodicals. Ehrlich was internationally acclaimed for his book The Population Bomb in 1968. The compelling manner in which he addressed explosive population growth and its consequences did a great deal to increase awareness of environmental issues in the 1970s. Population, Resources, Environment: Issues in Human Ecology, which he and his wife Anne Ehrlich published in 1970, is of no less significance.

Herman E. Daly was awarded the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 1996 because of his original contribution to insights into the socio-economic aspects involved in the decline of the environment.
He was one of the first economists to focus on environmental problems, and may be regarded as the founder of the promising new discipline of ‘ecological economics’. Professor Daly studies the decline in the environment in relation to macro-economic activity. According to Daly, ultimately a sort of ‘steady state’ should be achieved in which the burden caused by economic production does not exceed the natural capacity of the environment. He has been instrumental in developing the idea that costs for the environment must be reflected in the market prices of goods and services. Daly’s first publications on this subject originate from as early as 1968. Over the last few years, Professor Daly has written in particular on the significance of economic welfare and the measuring thereof. His Index on Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) has caused a sea change in thinking on welfare.
Professor Daly has provided a high-quality contribution to both the academic debate and political discussions on the environment. The committee hopes that awarding the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences to Daly will be an extra stimulus to him to continue his work, and that it will also encourage those who are currently developing with him the discipline of ecological economics.

Biography
The economist Herman E. Daly was born in Houston, Texas, in 1938. Daly obtained his B.A. degree in Economics from the Rice University (Houston) in 1960. Seven years later he received the Ph.D. degree from the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. Daly has worked at various universities in the United States and Brazil. From 1988 to 1994 he worked for the World Bank, whose Environment Department he helped develop and expand further. His present position is Senior Research Scholar at the University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs, College Park.

Colin Bibby was awarded the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 1994 for BirdLife International, in recognition of the pioneering international research being conducted by BirdLife International and also to help ensure its continuation.

BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a worldwide co-operative of organisations in the field of bird protection. They seek to protect birds and their natural habitats as one means of safeguarding the environment. Their endeavours are in the interest of all human and animal life on earth.
Birds are outstanding indicators of the condition of the environment, since they can be observed more easily and studied more closely than almost any other group of organisms. The scientific team of BirdLife International takes advantage of this fact by implementing and constantly evaluating its programme for the protection of biodiversity. The scientists at BirdLife are pioneers in documenting the worldwide threat to biodiversity.
The publication Putting Biodiversity on the Map (1992) convinced the jury to award the prize to BirdLife International. The study is an attempt to document patterns in the spread of biodiversity over the earth. It showed that one fourth of all bird species occur in a very small part of the world.

About the laureate
Until 2001 Dr Bibby (1948) headed a small group of researchers at BirdLife International in Cambridge, England. At the same time he directed BirdLife International’s research programmes in some seventy countries. He left BirdLife in 2001 and devoted his professional time to helping other conservation organisations and international companies to develop their strategic thinking for biodiversity conservation. He passed away on 7 August 2004.

Marko Branica has been awarded the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 1992 in recognition of his pioneering research in the chemical analysis of various metal contaminants in the environment. He has had a decisive impact on environmental policy in the Mediterranean.
As a young scientist at the Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Professor Branica helped develop methods of tracking uranium and related elements in the environment. Building on his previous research, he went on to the chemical analysis of various metal contaminants, such as copper, lead, cadmium and zinc. Branica’s work led to a breakthrough in the field of environmental chemistry: for the first time, low concentrations of metals in small volumes of fresh and sea water could be determined, thus forming the basis for research on metals in the food chain. The laureate’s innovative methods have also made it possible to distinguish between the various inorganic and organic forms in which metals occur, such as free metals (which are absorbed by organisms) and complex metals (which are not).
Branica is known for bringing together young scientists from different countries. Since 1961 he has organised scientific meetings biennially, the results of which have been published in special editions of scientific journals. These meetings have influenced aquatic environmental chemistry significantly.

About the laureate
Marko Branica was born in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1931. He studied physical chemistry at the University of Zagreb, where he earned the doctorate in physical chemistry in 1963. Since 1954 he has been associated with the Rudjer Boskovic Institute in Zagreb, of which he was made scientific advisor in 1970. At the University of Zagreb he has held professorships in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and, since 1976, the College of Chemical Engineering.
Branica has devoted much of his time to international advisory and organisational activities. Among other things, he has chaired the Organising Committee of the International Symposia on Chemistry of the Mediterranean. In addition, he belonged to various scientific committees and to the editorial boards of several scientific journals.
He has also stimulated progress in the field of environmental management, especially in the Mediterranean. As a result of regulations drafted at the Barcelona Conference – in which all of the Mediterranean countries participated – metal contaminants in the Mediterranean have been monitored under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Program and the Conseil International pour l’Exploration Scientifique de la Méditerranée. This led to the construction of sewage treatment plants in a number of countries. 
Marko Branica passed away on 17 November 2004.

James E. Lovelock received the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 1990 for the development of the Gaia hypothesis, in which he has been able to integrate knowledge from different scientific disciplines. In this theory, which represents an outstanding contribution to environmental science, he presents the earth as a living organism, in which there is a unity between animate and inanimate matter.
Professor Lovelock has made valuable contributions in a variety of scientific fields, including chemistry, physics, microbiology and medicine. In addition, he has been able to incorporate these individual disciplines into an integrated approach to scientific problems. The jury views this exceptional combination of specialisation and integration as one of Professor Lovelock’s most interesting qualities. During his scientific career his interest in the Earth and environmental research has become increasingly marked.
Gaia is becoming increasingly central in the study of environmental problems. He endeavours to show the closeness of the relationship between living and non-living processes, how feedback mechanisms can develop through natural selection, and how this has made continuing evolution possible for 3.5 billion years. This makes it clear how genetic processes of adaptation and evolution can lead to an improvement of the environment.
Professor Lovelock considers it wrong to study in isolation the various problems that affect the whole Earth. In his view the Earth must be viewed as a totality in order to understand where the gravest environmental problems occur. More than anyone else, he has been able to influence our thinking about man’s relationship with the environment. The Gaia hypothesis is at present being tested experimentally and the first positive results are beginning to emerge.

About the laureate
James E. Lovelock was born in Letchworth Garden City, UK, in 1919. After studying chemistry at Manchester University he took up a Medical Research Council post at the Institute for Medical Research in London. From 1946 to 1951 he was attached to Harvard Hospital in Salisbury, after which he returned to the Institute for Medical Research in London. He received a doctorate in medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1948 and in 1959 a D.Sc. in biophysics from London University.
In 1954 he was awarded a Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship in Medicine, which he chose to spend at the Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Subsequently, he spent a year at Yale University. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where he remained until 1964, since when he has headed an independent research institute, although continuing honorary research associations, first at the University of Houston and subsequently at the University of Reading in England.
From 1982 onwards he has been associated with the Marine Biology Association and since 1986 has served as its president.
In 1974 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He holds honorary degrees from the University of East Anglia, Exeter and Plymouth Polytechnic. He has received various awards for his scientific work.