A look back on past EAPS events.

What the Past Teaches: Meeting Today’s Global Environmental Challenges
School of Science Colloquium with Susan Solomon

Few can speak with as much authority on the topic of environmental success as Susan Solomon.

An MIT professor of atmospheric chemistry and climate science, Solomon was the first to identify the chemical process that causes the ozone hole, and she made some of the first measurements in Antarctica demonstrating that chlorine-containing chemicals that used to be in refrigerators and spray cans are the cause of ozone depletion.

As the presenter of this year’s MIT School of Science Dean’s Colloquium, Solomon used the phasing out of these chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), as well as the phasing out of lead in indoor paint and gasoline, as successful examples from which the world could learn how to meet today’s most critical global challenge: climate change.

The Dean’s colloquium series was established to recognize and celebrate scientists who have chosen innovative, non-traditional career paths and been unusually successful.  Solomon, who joined the MIT faculty in January 2012, is also a recipient of the National Medal of Science and co-led the science assessment of the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mapping the Early History of the Moon
41st Annual Killian Lecture with Maria Zuber

Maria Zuber, the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and MIT’s vice president for research, shared results from her enormously successful GRAIL mission when she delivered the 41st annual Killian Faculty Achievement Award Lecture in March.  The award, established in 1971 in honor of MIT’s 10th president, James R. Killian Jr., recognizes extraordinary professional accomplishments by MIT faculty. Candidates are nominated by their peers — an honor in itself, Zuber said, given the caliber of MIT’s faculty.

“It’s impossible to overstate how humbled I am,” Zuber told a packed auditorium. “When I first came to MIT, I thought, ‘If I could just be average here, I would be world-class.’”