MIT EAPS Directory

Ronald G. Prinn
TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric ScienceRon Prinn's research incorporates the chemistry, chemical evolution, dynamics and physics of the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets. Current projects involve atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry, climate science, and integrated assessment of science and policy regarding climate change. He leads the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) that measures rates of changes of the concentrations of trace gases involved in the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion. He is pioneering the use of inverse methods using AGAGE measurements and 3D models to determine trace gas emissions and understand atmospheric chemical processes. Through his directorship of the Center for Global Change Science and the Joint Program for the Science and Policy of Global Change he works with social scientists to link the science, economics, and policy aspects of global change. Prinn has co-developed a model which couples economics, climate dynamics, and land and ocean ecosystems to elucidate uncertainties in climate predictions.
Prinn, who has been a faculty member at MIT since 1971, served as Head of Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences from 1998 to 2003.
Publications
Lunt, M. F. and Rigby, M. and Ganesan, A. L. and Manning, A. J., et al. (2015) Reconciling reported and unreported HFC emissions with atmospheric observations Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112, no. 19, pp. 5927-5931, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1420247112
Thompson, R. L. and Stohl, A. and Zhou, L. X. and Dlugokencky, E., et al. (2015) Methane emissions in East Asia for 2000-2011 estimated using an atmospheric Bayesian inversion Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, vol. 120, no. 9, pp. 4352-4369, doi: 10.1002/2014jd022394
Wells, K. C. and Millet, D. B. and Bousserez, N. and Henze, D. K., et al. (2015) Simulation of atmospheric N2O with GEOS-Chem and its adjoint: evaluation of observational constraintsGeoscientific Model Development, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 3179-3198, doi: 10.5194/gmd-8-3179-2015
Zhuang, Q. L. and Zhu, X. D. and He, Y. J. and Prigent, C. and Melillo, J. M. and McGuire, A. D. and Prinn, R. G. and Kicklighter, D. W. (2015) Influence of changes in wetland inundation extent on net fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane in northern high latitudes from 1993 to 2004 Environmental Research Letters, vol. 10, no. 9, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095009
Awards
Contact Information
t: 617 253 2452