‘Greenhouse Effect’ Expert to Take New Chair at UCI
A world-renowned atmospheric scientist has been named founding chairman of UC Irvine’s new geosciences department in an academic coup that is expected to enhance the university’s already lofty standing in the research field.
Ralph Cicerone, who is now senior scientist and director of the atmospheric chemistry division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., begins work at UCI effective Saturday, Harold Moore, dean of the College of Physical Sciences, said Thursday. His wife, Carol Cicerone, an author and associate professor of psychology at the University of Colorado, will also come to UCI, as a professor of cognitive sciences.
Cicerone, whose nine-month salary will be $77,000, is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the “greenhouse effectâ€--the warming of atmospheric gases that potentially can raise global temperatures.
The planned geosciences department, which will grow to six faculty members, including Cicerone, over the next two years, will study phenomena including the greenhouse effect, depletion of the Earth’s ozone shield and the transfer of energy among the continents, the oceans and the atmosphere.
‘Working on This for 3 Years’
Cicerone, who decided to come to UCI after a long and intensive recruiting effort, is a prominent addition to the physical sciences faculty, which includes F. Sherwood Rowland, who in 1974 first alerted the world that the earth’s ozone shield was being destroyed by common chemical substances.
“I’ve been working on this for three years,†Moore said. “Ralph Cicerone is one of the very, very few people in the world that we would have targeted for this job, and he was our first choice. With Ralph, we will be able to build a program that will bring a great deal of recognition to the university.â€
Only one scientist is now missing from the atmospheric triumvirate that forms Moore’s recruiting master plan: Mario Molina, who was Rowland’s postdoctoral researcher and partner in the discovery of ozone depletion and is now a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Molina, who has since proved that chlorofluorocarbons are directly responsible for an irreparable hole in the protective ozone layer over Antarctica, is reportedly being wooed by a several prestigious universities, but has made no decision. Cicerone’s decision to come to UCI may help attract Molina, Moore said.
Rowland Thursday applauded the appointment of Cicerone, a longtime friend and colleague.
“One of the most important developments in atmospheric research has been the realization that gases other than carbon dioxide play an important role in the greenhouse effect,†Rowland said. “A great deal of this work has been carried out by Cicerone and the collaborators†at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Carol Cicerone, a scholar in the field of sensory processes, has mapped the number and distribution of color-sensitive cone cells in the retina of eye to chart color perception and the early stages of information processing by the brain. She also begins work at UCI effective Saturday.
