Title: Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Institution: Scripps Institution of Oceanography / UCSD

Degree: PhD, Earth Sciences

Specialty: The discovery and characterization of the increase and global distribution of atmospheric nitrous oxide, a stratospheric ozone depleter and a greenhouse gas regulated by both the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols; the first experimental proof of the existence of deep-sea hydrothermal vents; the practical application of the measurement of dissolved atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons to determine the rates of ventilation, transport and mixing processes in the deep ocean and in deep lakes; the first geochemical study of mixing processes in the Weddell Sea, a major source of deep water for the world oceans; and, the first accurate calibration of the global abundance and variations of the atmospheric hydroxyl radical, the atmosphere’s primary cleansing agent.

Website: http://scrippsscholars.ucsd.edu/rfweiss