Stephen E. Schwartz (born June 18, 1941) is an atmospheric scientist at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

. He served from 2004 to 2009 as the Chief Scientist of th
Atmospheric Science Program
of the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

. He is author of over 100 scientific publications dealing mainly with cloud chemistry and forcing of climate change by atmospheric aerosols.

Education

Schwartz graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, earned his Ph.D. from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and was a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow at

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Professional

He is a member of a number of professional organizations and has been elected Fellow of 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 ...

, Fellow of

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

and Fellow of International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry. He was named ISI Highly Cited researcher in 2006.

Scientific contributions

Acid Rain

Schwartz was a leading scientist in the area of atmospheric sulfur and

acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists b ...

. Schwartz authored "the study some credit with spurring acid rain legislation in the 1990s." His paper "Acid deposition: Unraveling a regional phenomenon" ''Science'' 243, 753-763 (1989). was cited by the US Department of Energy in 2017 as one of 40 "Research Milestones" in the 40-year history of the Department. The citation reads in part "Schwartz's findings gave the first clear picture of the nationwide impacts of different sulfur and nitrogen sources and led to changes to the Clean Air Act."

Aerosol Forcing of Climate Change

A 1992 article authored with Robert Jay Charlson, James E. Hansen, and others provided the first global-scale estimates of radiative forcing by anthropogenic

sulfate The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ...

aerosol. This forcing offsets a substantial but highly uncertain fraction of forcing by incremental greenhouse gases; however the aerosol is short lived in the atmosphere, about a week, compared to the decadal to centennial residence times of greenhouse gases. This paper has been highly influential, with over 3500 citations. In 1995, as a result of this work, the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'' named sulfate aerosol as one of nine runners-up for

Molecule of the Year The Breakthrough of the Year is an annual award for the most significant development in scientific research made by the AAAS journal ''Science,'' an academic journal covering all branches of science. Originating in 1989 as the ''Molecule of the Y ...

.Editor. (1995). Molecule of the Year: A New Form of Matter Unveiled. Science. 270: 1902.

References

External links

Stephen E. Schwartz Home Page

Highly Cited page

Real Climate: Climate Insensitivity

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Stephen E. 1941 births Living people 21st-century American chemists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American climatologists Brookhaven National Laboratory staff Fellows of the American Geophysical Union