Syukuro Manabe
Facts
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Risdon Photography
Syukuro Manabe
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021
Born: 21 September 1931, Shingu, Ehime, Japan
Affiliation at the time of the award: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Prize motivation: “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming”
Prize share: 1/4
Work
Our world is full of complex systems characterised by randomness and disorder. One complex system of vital importance to humankind is Earth’s climate. Syukuro Manabe demonstrated how increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to increased temperatures at the surface of the Earth. In the 1960s, he led the development of physical models of the Earth’s climate and was the first person to explore the interaction between radiation balance and the vertical transport of air masses. His work laid the foundation for the development of current climate models.
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