Syukuro Manabe (USA), Klaus Hasselmann (Germany) and Giorgio Parisi (Italy) will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021. Illustration: Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach
TROPOS congratulates Klaus Hasselmann from MPI-M on the Nobel Prize in Physics!
05.10.2021
Klaus Hasselmann, former director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 together with Syukuro Manabe (USA) and Giorgio Parisi (Italy).
With his fundamental work on the influence of humans on the climate system, Hasselmann also contributed to the development of research at TROPOS.
Klaus Hasselmann and Syukuro Manabe are honoured for their fundamental contributions to climate research, Giogio Parisi for his research on disordered materials and random processes. Klaus Hasselmann developed a model of how weather and climate are connected, i.e. how short-term phenomena such as precipitation are related to long-term developments such as ocean currents. He thus provided evidence why climate models can deliver reliable predictions despite short-term weather fluctuations. In this way, he proved the connection between the increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and global warming.
Klaus Hasselmann was Director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg from 1975 to November 1999 and Scientific Director at the German Climate Computing Centre from 1988 to 1999.
The 89-year-old investigated human-made climate change and the greenhouse effect early on. "In 30 to 100 years, depending on how much fossil fuel we consume, we will face a very significant climate change. Climate zones will shift, precipitation will be distributed differently. Then we will no longer be able to talk about random results," he said in a 1988 interview. "We should realise that we are entering a situation where there is no turning back."
Read more at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology: https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/communication/news/single-news/page?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=1433&cHash=3a192daa69dcfcadd4b30950aa666c24 , the Max Planck Society: https://www.mpg.de/17658629/nobel-prize-in-physics-2021-klaus-hasselmann and the Nobel Foundation: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2021/summary/ .