Azadeh Tabazadeh is an

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...

and author known for her work in

atmospheric science Atmospheric science is the study of the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Clima ...

, work which has improved our understanding of the reactions that affect ozone depletion and highlighted the impact human activity has on the atmosphere.

Early life and education

Tabazadeh grew up in

Tehran, Iran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, raised by her father Modjtaba, and her mother, Azar. Her father was a civil engineer. In 1973, when she was eight years old, she received a chemistry set as a present for

Nowruz Nowruz (, , () , () , () , () , Kurdish language, Kurdish: () , () , () , () , , , , () , , ) is the Iranian or Persian New Year. Historically, it has been observed by Iranian peoples, but is now celebrated by many ...

, from her uncle, a Geology student. She also received the memoirs of

Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...

, which showed her for the first time that women could be successful scientists. These presents are key to developing her passion for science. Tabazadeh was 14 when

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

overthrew Shah Reza Pahlavi in Iran and implemented

Sharia law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, inta ...

in 1979 . In 1982, following the start of the Iran-Iraq war, Tabazadeh persuaded her parents to send her abroad so she could pursue science, Their parents and younger sister stayed behind. After arriving in the US, Tabazadeh lived in Mountain View with her mother's friend and studied English. She later attended

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, earning both her bachelor's and master's degrees in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

Doctoral work

Tabazadeh continued at UCLA for a doctorate in

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

, awarded in 1994. Part of her work aimed to understand the contributions of

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

eruptions to chlorine levels in the stratosphere. She found that this chlorine precipitated before it reached the stratosphere, implying that human activity was still the major contributor of chlorine in the upper atmosphere. Her work was vital in ending 20 years of debate around this topic and supported the value of measures, such as the

Montreal Protocol The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was agreed on 16 ...

, in reducing chlorine emissions. During her doctoral studies, she also contributed to the understanding of why the

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

atmosphere was more affected by

ozone depletion Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a lowered total amount of ozone in Earth, Earth's upper atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone layer) around Earth's polar ...

than the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

. She showed that the colder temperature of the Antarctic

stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second-lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is composed of stratified temperature zones, with the warmer layers of air located higher ...

allowed for specific reactions to take place, leading to the loss of ozone; this was not the case in the warmer Arctic stratosphere. This led her to conclude that increasing Earth's surface temperatures, and therefore decreased stratospheric temperatures, could lead to more ozone depletion. This made her one of the first scientists to link ozone depletion and

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

Professional career

After she finished her PhD, Tabazadeh moved to work at NASA Ames Research Centre. She continued to work on polar stratospheric clouds and their role in stratospheric chemistry. Her work showed that denitrification in the stratosphere was an essential factor in ozone loss. She also made additional contributions to understanding ice formation and removal of nitric acid in the upper

troposphere The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth. It contains 80% of the total mass of the Atmosphere, planetary atmosphere and 99% of the total mass of water vapor and aerosols, and is where most weather phenomena occur. From the ...

Honors

She visited the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in 1999 as a recipient of the

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. T ...

under the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

. She was also awarded the

James B. Macelwane Medal The James B. Macelwane Medal is awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union to three to five early career scientists (no more than 10 years beyond having received their Ph.D.). It is named after James B. Macelwane, a Jesuit priest and one of ...

from the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

in 2001 for “significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by young scientists of outstanding ability”. She automatically became a Fellow of the Union as a result. In 2004 Tabazadeh left NASA to become a visiting professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

where she worked on potential atmospheric impact of using

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

rather than

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...

s as an energy source. She left Stanford in 2011 to write her memoirs.

Selected publications

* Tabazadeh, A., & Turco, R. P. (1993)
Stratospheric chlorine injection by volcanic eruptions: HCI scavenging and implications for ozone.
''Science'', ''260''(5111), 1082–1086. * Tabazadeh, A., Santee, M. L., Danilin, M. Y., Pumphrey, H. C., Newman, P. A., Hamill, P. J., & Mergenthaler, J. L. (2000)
Quantifying denitrification and its effect on ozone recovery.
''Science'', ''288''(5470), 1407–1411.

Personal life

Tabazadeh has 3 children.

Awards and honours

(1999) *

, American Geophysical Union (2001) * Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2001) *

NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbrv. ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under its guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scien ...

(2001) * Henry G. Houghton Award, American Meteorological Society (2003)

References

External links

* http://azadehtabazadeh.com/
The Sky Detective
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabazadeh, Azadeh Women atmospheric scientists Iranian geophysicists Year of birth missing (living people) Scientists from Tehran Women geophysicists University of California, Los Angeles alumni Iranian women chemists Living people Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers