Jamaican Part of IPCC Nobel Peace Prize Team

Never before in our history has a Jamaican been a recipient of the much-acclaimed Noble Peace Prize. Dr. Anthony Chen, Professor of Physics at the University of the West Indies (UWI), joins the ranks of noteworthy Jamaicans as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that will collect their Prize on December 10 in Oslo, Norway. The IPCC shares the Nobel Peace Prize with Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.

According to a release by the Norwegian Nobel Committee Al Gore, one of the world’s leading environmental activist and the IPCC are being recognised “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) established the IPCC in 1988. The Panel includes three Working Groups and a Task Force on Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Their role was to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.

Dr. Chen is a member of Working Group One and the Lead Author of Chapter Eleven on ‘Regional Climate Projections’ in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report titled ‘Climate Change 2007’. The report was presented to the Royal Geographic Society in 2007.

“Everyone on the committee was surprised. I feel good to be on a team that has being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” remarked Dr. Chen.

In 1972 Dr. Chen conducted a study on Ionospheric Irregularities Responsible for the Scintillation of Satellite Signal to receive his PhD from UWI. He has written over 30 publications and presented/reported over 40 papers in conference proceedings on atmospheric physics and meteorology (climatology), environmental and energy studies, and physics.

Dr. Chen is a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and member of the American Association of Physics Teachers, American Meteorological Society, International Solar Energy Society, and the Jamaica Society of Scientist and Technologist.

The Nobel Peace Prize was established in 1897 by the will of Norwegian Industrialist and Inventor, Alfred Nobel. A jury awards the Nobel Peace Prize to a person or institution, which has worked towards maintaining peace, dignity, and human rights.

*Photo taken from the University of the West Indies, Mona Online Research Database

Email this to a friend | Print this Page | Join the discussion about this article