News Release

UCI Chancellor wins prestigious Einstein award

Award recognizes Cicerone's contributions to atmospheric chemistry

Grant and Award Announcement

University of California - Irvine

Irvine, Calif., June 18, 2004 — UC Irvine Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone has won one of the most prestigious awards in science, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science.

The award is given each year by the World Cultural Council “as a means of recognition, and as an incentive to scientific and technological research and development,” taking into special consideration those research efforts “which have brought true benefit and well being to mankind.”

Cicerone, an acclaimed atmospheric scientist, the Daniel G. Aldrich, Jr. Chair in Earth System Science and UCI professor of chemistry, is recognized by the award for his pioneering contributions to atmospheric chemistry that highlight the importance of basic science in understanding the health of our planet and how to plan for its future.

The award ceremony will take place at the University of Liege, Belgium, in November. The award, which will be presented to Cicerone by the president of the World Cultural Council and the rector of the University of Liege, consists of a diploma, a commemorative medal and a check for $10,000.

“I am honored to win such an award that bears Albert Einstein’s name, and I thank the World Cultural Council,” Cicerone said. “I believe this recognition reflects well not only on the important work being done in Earth system science at UCI but also on the excellent research environment on our campus.”

Cicerone’s research in recent years has involved understanding the chemistry of the ozone layer and the study of surface sources and sinks of trace gases that are important for the global greenhouse effect. He also has helped shape national public policy relevant to global climate change and pollution issues.

Earlier this week, Cicerone was nominated as the next president of the National Academy of Sciences of which he is also a member. He is a member, too, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. His research and public policy leadership in protecting the global environment have won him many awards, including the United Nations Environment Program Ozone Award (1997) and the Bower Award and Prize for Scientific Achievement (1999). In 2002, the American Geophysical Union, of which Cicerone is a former president, awarded him its prestigious Roger Revelle Medal. He has published about 100 refereed papers and 200 conference papers, and has presented invited testimony to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on several occasions.

The recipient of the Albert Einstein World Award of Science is selected by an international jury belonging to the World Cultural Council's Interdisciplinary Committee. Based in Mexico, the World Cultural Council was established in 1982 to improve “the social, cultural, moral and spiritual advancement of mankind” and to reward “that scientific research which brings progress to mankind.” Past winners of the Einstein award include UCI's F. Sherwood Rowland, who won it in 1994 for his contributions to the environmental sciences. A year later, Rowland won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

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About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked public university dedicated to research, scholarship and community. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with approximately 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,300 faculty members. The third-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3 billion.

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