William Nierenberg | |
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| Born | (1919-02-13)February 13, 1919 New York City, US |
| Died | September 10, 2000(2000-09-10) (aged 81) |
| Alma mater | Columbia University City College of New York |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Michigan University of California, Berkeley Scripps Institution of Oceanography |
| Thesis | The Radiofrequency Spectra of the Sodium Halides (1947) |
| Doctoral advisor | Norman Ramsey |
William Aaron Nierenberg (February 13, 1919 – September 10, 2000) was an Americanphysicist who worked on theManhattan Project and was director of theScripps Institution of Oceanography from 1965 through 1986.[1] He was a co-founder of theGeorge C. Marshall Institute in 1984.
Nierenberg was born on February 13, 1919, at 213 E. 13th Street, on theLower East Side ofNew York, the son of very poor Jewish immigrants fromAustro-Hungary.[2] He went toTownsend Harris High School and then theCity College of New York (CCNY), where he won a scholarship to spend his junior year abroad in France at theUniversity of Paris.[2] In 1939, he became the first recipient of aWilliam Lowell Putnam fellowship from the City College.[3] Also in 1939, he participated in research atColumbia University, where he took a course in statistical mechanics from his future mentor,I. I. Rabi.[4] He went on to graduate work at Columbia. Still, from 1941, he spent the war years seconded to theManhattan Project, working onisotope separation,[2] before returning to Columbia to complete his PhD.
In 1948, Nierenberg took up his first academic staff position, as Assistant Professor of Physics at theUniversity of Michigan. From 1950 to 1965, he was Associate and then Professor of Physics at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, where he had a very large and productive low energynuclear physics laboratory, graduating 40 PhDs and publishing about 100 papers. He was responsible for determining more nuclear moments than any other individual. This work was cited when he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971.[4]
In 1953, Nierenberg took a one-year leave to serve as the director of theColumbia University Hudson Laboratories, working on naval warfare problems.[1] Later, he oversaw the design and construction of the “new” physics building at Berkeley. Much later (1960–1962), he took leave once again as Assistant Secretary General of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in charge of scientific affairs, overseeing many international studies on physics and advanced defense technologies.
In 1965, Nierenberg was asked to be theScripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) director. Nierenberg was the director of SIO for 21 years, the longest-serving director to date. Five modern research vessels joined the Scripps fleet during his tenure, and the institution’s budget increased fivefold.[4] He oversaw theDeep Sea Drilling Project (1966–1986), which produced scientific advances such as the discovery of deep-sea hydrocarbons, the finding that the Mediterranean Sea had once been a closed basin and even a dry seabed, and confirmation that present ocean basins are young. The project became the first multi-institutional, international scientific collaboration and a model for later projects.[4]
Nierenberg gained national recognition for his contributions to science. He was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences in 1971 and the governing Council of the Academy in 1979. He was also elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965,[5] theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1975,[6] and theNational Academy of Engineering in 1983.[7] In 1981, Nierenberg became a founding member of theWorld Cultural Council.[8] In 1987, he was awarded the Delmer S. Fahrney Medal from theFranklin Institute for outstanding leadership in science.[9]
Nierenberg served on many panels and advisory committees after returning from NATO. In 1971, he was appointed chairman of the National Academy of Sciences National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere and served on this committee until 1977. He served on various panels of thePresident's Science Advisory Committee. He was a member of theNational Science Board from 1972 to 1978 and was appointed for another term from November 1982 to May 1988.[10]
Nierenberg was a consultant to theNational Security Agency and served on many military-related panels. In 1976, he was appointed one of two senior consultants to the newly formedWhite House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). He was a member of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA)Advisory Council from 1978 to 1982 and was its first chairman.[10] He was Chairman of the OSTP Acid Rain Peer Review Panel, whose report "Acid Rain" was published in 1984. The report encouraged the administration to curbacid rain emissions.
Nierenberg took a strong interest in the problem ofglobal warming. Under his predecessor at Scripps,Roger Revelle, Scripps had begun a program to monitorCO2 and othergreenhouse gases. Nierenberg supported this work and intervened personally when research funds for the program were threatened.[4]
In October 1980, during theCarter presidency, an Act of Congress was passed requesting the National Academy of Science to review what was known about climate change. The Academy appointed Nierenberg to chair the committee to produce this report. The committee comprised prominent physical scientists and two economists,William Nordhaus of Yale andThomas Schelling of Harvard. Schelling and many scientists had served on committees for two previous reports for the Carter administration, highlighting global warming as a potentially major problem. Nordhaus was developing a new model for growth in CO2 emissions, the first which did not assumelinear extrapolations.[11][12]
The scientific facts of the resultingChanging Climate report, which was released in October 1983, were largely in line with the previous reports. Its key points were:
The report also contained policy recommendations:
The policy recommendations have proved controversial, and they have decelerated calls for quick action on climate change in the media and Washington.[13] HistoriansNaomi Oreskes,Erik M. Conway, and Matthew Shindell have argued that Nierenberg's report marked the genesis of climate change debates that would ensue over the subsequent decades.[14] Reagan administration science advisorGeorge A. Keyworth II cited the report in arguing against “unwarranted and unnecessarily alarmist” conclusions of the Environmental Protection Agency.Exxon similarly cited the report in reversing previous commitments to renewable energy research.[13] Oreskes and Conway contend that the chapters written by the economists differ from those written by the scientists, that the policy recommendations reflect mainly the views of the economists, and that Nierenberg, the committee chairman, personally rejected an emerging consensus view on global warming among climate scientists, and "in doing so arguably launched theclimate change debate, transforming the issue from one of scientific concern to one of political controversy."[15] In a 2010 paper, Nierenberg's son, Nicolas, disputes each of these points, arguing that the report's scientific conclusions reflected the current consensus and pointing out that other climate reports from the time also stopped short of recommending near-term energy-policy changes.[16]
Nierenberg subsequently became a co-founder of theGeorge C. Marshall Institute.[17]
A building and a rose garden on the Scripps Institution of Oceanography campus are named for him, and theNierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest has been started. Some recipients have beenE. O. Wilson,Walter Cronkite,Jane Lubchenco,David Attenborough,Jane Goodall,Craig Venter,Gordon Moore,James E. Hansen andRichard Dawkins.
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Director ofScripps Institution of Oceanography 1965–1986 | Succeeded by |
