Jerry Mahlman (February 21, 1940 – November 28, 2012) was an American meteorologist and climatologist.

Biography

Mahlman was born on February 21, 1940, in

Crawford, Nebraska Crawford is a city in Dawes County, Nebraska, Dawes County, Nebraska, United States, in the Great Plains region. The population was 997 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It was incorporated in 1886 and was named for the late Captain ...

, and received his undergraduate degree from

Chadron State College Chadron State College (CSC) is a public college in Chadron, Nebraska, United States. It is one of three public colleges in the Nebraska State College System. It practices open admissions. The school opened in June 1911, although a previous ins ...

in 1962 and his Ph.D. from

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

in 1967. From 1970 until 2000, he worked at the

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) is a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). The current director is Venkatachalam Ramaswamy. It is one of seven ...

of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

, serving as director from 1984-2000. He was most recently a Senior Research Associate at the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundat ...

. Mahlman died on November 28, 2012, in

Buffalo Grove, Illinois Buffalo Grove is a Village (United States)#Illinois, village in Lake County, Illinois, Lake and Cook County, Illinois, Cook Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of Downtown Chicago and north of ...

, at the age of 72. Mahlman was a pioneer in the use of computational models of the atmosphere to examine the interactions between atmospheric chemistry and physics. His early work focussed on understanding the distribution of fallout from atmospheric nuclear bomb tests. He then became interested in the physics of transport in the

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 ...

, in which mixing is relatively weak and parcels of air can be tracked for long periods of time. At the

, Mahlman collaborated with Syukoro Manabe to develop dynamical models of the stratospheric circulation that demonstrated the importance of meanders in the polar jet stream for producing exchange between the polar and subtropical stratosphere. He then worked to extend these models to include the chemistry of nitrous oxide and ozone. While Mahlman was skeptical of early works that suggested that

chlorofluorocarbon Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly Halogenation, halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F). They are produced as volatility (chemistry), volat ...

s were responsible for depleting the ozone layer, measurements of high levels of free chlorine in the ozone hole caused him to change his mind in late 1987, and he later was one of the first to sound the alarm about ozone depletion over the Arctic. As director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, he became involved in interpreting the results of computer models of

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 ...

for the public and policymakers. On the topic o
climate change
before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on March 3, 2004, he said: Mahlman received numerous awards and honors, including the

Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is the highest award for atmospheric science of the American Meteorological Society. It is presented to individual scientists, who receive a medal. Named in honor of meteorology and oceanography pioneer Carl- ...

of the American Meteorology Society, the Gold Medal of the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

, and the

Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive The Presidential Rank Awards program is an individual award program granted by the United States government to career Senior Executive Service (SES) members and Senior Career Employees within the OPM-allocated Senior-Level (SL) or Scientific-Prof ...

, the highest honor awarded to a federal employee.

References

External links

CV

Senate testimony on Climate Change, 2004

The Skeptical Environmentalist ''The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World'' () is a book by Danish author and statistician Bjørn Lomborg which focuses on the author's view of environmental economics and issues. It was first published in Danish in ...

(follow link)
A CONVERSATION WITH JERRY MAHLMAN - Listening to the Climate Models, and Trying to Wake Up the World

Interview: Straight talk about climate change. Jerry Mahlman on dealing with your grandkids' problem

Jerry Mahlman: Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahlman, Jerry 1940 births 2012 deaths American climatologists Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal recipients People from Crawford, Nebraska Colorado State University alumni Chadron State College alumni