Prof. Dr. Paul J. Crutzen, one of the globally most influential atmospheric chemists of our time and a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry with Mario J. Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland of 1995 for their work on the depletion of the Ozone Layer has passed away on 28 January 2021in Mainz (Germany). He was born in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) on 3 December 1933.
He was trained as a bridge construction engineer in Amsterdam (1954-1958), received a Ph.D. in Meteorology in 1968 and in 1973 a D.Sc from the University of Stockholm, where he worked until 1974 as a Research Associate and Research Professor. After working as a Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford (1969-1971), as a Research Scientist and Consultant at NCAR and NOAA in Boulder, CO and as Research Director at NCAR (1974-1980), he became a member of the Max Planck Society and Director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz (1980-2000).
He has been one of the most cited natural scientists whose work on the ozone depletion, on the nuclear winter (1981) and on the Anthropocene concept he coined had a great scientific and political influence across disciplinary and national boundaries. His basic research on the ozone layer depletion had a direct impact on the on the negotiation and adoption of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987). His work with John Birks on the Nuclear Winter (1982) challenged those nuclear strategists who opined that a nuclear war could be fought and won. And when he coined in February 2000 in Cuernavaca the Anthropocene concept he triggered a multidisciplinary ongoing debate in the natural and social sciences, in the humanities, in law and in the applied sciences.
The great respect for his scientific achievements was expressed in many obituaries by his close colleagues and friends in Germany (by the President of the Max Planck Society and by the chairman of the Association of German Scientists [VDW]), in The Netherlands and in many other countries, and in numerous articles and memorials in the global press.
His advice was also sought by scientists and policymakers alike as well as by civil society in many countries. His independent and critical voice on the negative impact of human activities on nature and the earth system will be missed but his work with fellow scientists on the Anthropocene will continue to stimulate a global scientific debate on the future of earth and human history.
I became familiar with Paul Crutzen’s work on the Nuclear Winter in the early 1980s and on the ozone depletion when I shifted my interest from weapons of mass destruction to issues of global environmental change and international environment policy after the end of the Cold War. I met Prof. Dr. Paul J. Crutzen for the first time in October 2009 during a conference of scientists in Berlin and saw him often between 2013 and 2018 in his office in Mainz and for the last time during a meeting of the Anthropocene Working Group in September 2018.
I was both honoured to publish in 2016 one of his last books on: Paul J. Crutzen: A Pioneer on Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change in the Anthropocene and his preface essay: “The Anthropocene: Geology by Mankind” in: Hans Günter Brauch, Úrsula Oswald Spring, Czeslaw Mesjasz, John Grin, Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Béchir Chourou, Pal Dunay, Jörn Birkmann (Eds.): Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and Security – Threats, Challenges, Vulnerabilities and Risks (Berlin – Heidelberg – New York: Springer-Verlag, 2011): 3-4. An anthology with his selected authored and co-authored texts on the Anthropocene will be published in summer 2021 coedited by Susanne Benner, Gregor Lax, Paul J. Crutzen (†), Jos Lelieveld and Ulrich Pöschl on: Paul J. Crutzen and the Anthropocene – A New Phase of Earth History.
I am very sad about his death of one of my authors who has become a friend. We lose with him one of the great natural scientists of the 20th and early 21st century. In these days of sorrow, my thoughts and personal sympathy are with his wife Terttu Crutzen and his daughters Ilona and Silvia and his three grandchildren.
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