Syukuro (Suki) Manabe Receives 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics

Oct. 5, 2021

AOS Senior Meteorologist Syukuro “Suki” Manabe has been awarded a share of the 2021 Nobel Prize in physics “for the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.”

“Syukuro Manabe demonstrated how increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to increased temperatures at the surface of the Earth,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted in announcing the award today. “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.”

He shares the honor for the physical modeling of the climate with Klaus Hasselmann of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany. The other half of this year’s physics prize was awarded to Giorgio Parisi of the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”

A news conference is planned for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 5, in Richardson Auditorium, to be followed by a reception in a large tent south of the building on what is known on campus as Alexander Beach. You may also watch the news conference at Media Central Live.

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