Sound and video recordings of lecture presentations given at a two-day Symposium in Celebration of the 75th Birthday of Roger R. Revelle held on March 9-10, 1984.
Symposium in Celebration of the 75th Birthday of Roger R. Revelle recordings, 1984 March 9-10 (SMC 73)
Extent: 1 Linear feet (1 record carton)
Digital Content
Recordings have been digitally reformatted.
Roger Randall Dougan Revelle (1909-1991) was a scientist, academic administrator and early theorist on the subject of climate change. He earned a B.S. in Geology from Pomona College in 1929 and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of California, Berkeley in 1936 after completing a research assistantship at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). During his graduate work at SIO, Revelle was initially tasked to gather and analyze samples of marine sediments collected by research vessels. However, he became increasingly interested in a parallel investigation into the solubility of calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide in sea water. This early research on the carbon cycle was the foundation for his lifelong study of the connection between anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
During World War II Revelle served as a sonar officer assigned to the U.S. Navy Sound Laboratory in San Diego from 1941 to 1942. During this time he also served as a project officer for the University of California Division of War Research. In 1946 he was appointed Commander of the Subsection on Water Studies for the Bureau of Ships. He was officially commended for his outstanding work by the Secretary of the Navy, and his emergent reputation would later allow him to effect considerable influence in naval oceanographic research programs. He received several promotions and was appointed Chief Liaison between the U.S. Navy and the many divisions of the National Defense Research Committee, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Underwater Sound Laboratory and the Harvard University Underwater Sound Group.
He returned to SIO in 1948, where he served as director from 1951 to 1964. During this time he was a formative advocate for a new University of California campus in San Diego in the late 1950s. Under his directorship SIO was designated as the primary research center for the Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Program of the International Geophysical Year. In 1956 Charles David Keeling joined SIO to lead the project, and its activities reinforced Revelle's interest in the global repercussions of carbon dioxide and climate change.
Revelle left SIO in 1964, formally switching fields from oceanography to public policy, and founded the Harvard Center for Population Studies where he served as director until 1976. During this time, he pioneered the application of science and technology to developing countries and world hunger. He then returned to UC San Diego as a Professor of Science and Public Policy in the Department of Political Science until his retirement.
Roger Revelle served in countless professional capacities spanning a variety of fields and projects. Among his many positions, he served as the first Science Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a chairman of the NASA Advisory Council. Under his leadership, the President's Science Advisory Committee Panel on Environmental Pollution published the first authoritative report recognizing carbon dioxide as a global concern in 1965. He also chaired the Energy and Climate Panel of the National Academy of Sciences which demonstrated that two-thirds of remaining atmospheric carbon dioxide exists as a result of fossil fuel pollution. One of his most prominent assignments was a presidential appointment as chairman of the Interior Panel on Waterlogging and Salinity in West Pakistan. He received the National Medal of Science in 1990, remarking: "I got it for being the grandfather of the greenhouse effect."
Sound and video recordings of lecture presentations given at a two-day Symposium in Celebration of the 75th Birthday of Roger R. Revelle, held on March 9-10, 1984. The themes for the presentations were: food, energy and population; the Earth, climate, and carbon dioxide; and science and society. Speakers included: William A. Nierenberg, Keith A. Brueckner, Harrison S. Brown, Jean Mayer, J. Tuzo Wilson, Robert M. Garrels, Glenn Seaborg, Rollin Eckis, and Emilio Q. Daddario, with concluding remarks by Revelle himself. Introductions were provided by notable scientists, including: Charles David Keeling, Walter Munk, Harmon Craig, Bill Menard and Edward Goldberg.
A program for the event outlines the order of talks, and the recordings are described in the container list below. Descriptions may include small inaccuracies as they were based on an older inventory.
Arranged in two series: 1) U-MATIC VIDEO, and 2) AUDIOCASSETTE.