Hans Oeschger

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Hans Oeschger (born April 2, 1927 in Ottenbach ZH ; † December 25, 1998 in Bern ) was a Swiss physicist and a pioneer in climate research .

Life

Oeschger studied physics at the ETH Zurich . He received his doctorate in 1955 from the University of Bern under the direction of Friedrich Georg Houtermans . In 1963 he founded the Department of Climate and Environmental Physics at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern and headed it until his retirement in 1992.

science

In 1955, Oeschger developed an instrument for measuring very weak radioactivity . This measuring device for the activity of naturally occurring radioisotopes , the Oeschger counter, had a much higher sensitivity than all existing instruments. This made it possible, among other things, to extend the C14 method to geophysical issues. Oeschger was the first to determine the “age” of the Pacific deep sea.

Oeschger was a pioneer in researching ice cores . Working with his colleagues, he was the first to measure the different proportions of atmospheric carbon in warm and cold periods . In 1979 he proposed that the concentration of atmospheric carbon during the last glacial period was almost 50% lower than it is today. Oeschger and his colleagues Chester S. Langway and Willi Dansgaard documented a series of rapid climatic fluctuations during and after the end of the last ice age in ice cores in Greenland, which are now known as the Dansgaard-Oeschger events .

He was co-author of the first report of the Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change (IPCC report) from 1992. Oeschger was very concerned about a possible greenhouse effect from increased CO 2 emissions. He took his role as a researcher in relation to society very seriously and said: “The worst would be if there were serious changes in the next five to ten years and we researchers couldn't do anything about it and didn't have the courage to react early enough To point out developments. "

Honors

In 1988 Oeschger was elected a member of the Leopoldina , and in 1990 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences . The European Geography Society has been awarding the Hans Oeschger Medal in his honor since 2001 . The competence center for climate research ( Oeschger Center for Climate Research ) founded in October 2007 at the University of Bern is named after Hans Oeschger. The Oeschger Bluff in Antarctica has been named after it since 1975 .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A Pioneer in Environmental Physics ( Memento June 2, 2000 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Oeschger, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss geophysicist, professor of physics and climate researcher
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Ottenbach ZH
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1998
Place of death Bern