Papers of Roger Revelle, distinguished scientist, academic administrator and early climate change theorist. The collection contains his professional correspondence, writings, research and administrative files, and photographs.
Roger Revelle Papers, 1933-1991 (SMC 6)
Restrictions: Original media in the AUDIOVISUAL series are restricted. Viewing/listening copies
may be available for researchers.
OFF-SITE STORAGE: COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
Extent: 99 Linear feet (228 archives boxes, 8 shoe boxes, 1 artifact box, 6 flat boxes, 2 map case folders, and 4 films)
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."
Papers of Roger Revelle, distinguished scientist, academic administrator and early climate change theorist. The collection contains his professional correspondence, writings, research and administrative files, and photographs. It includes an extensive array of organizational materials from Revelle's many professional association memberships and activities, as well as a comprehensive collection of papers, writings and images documenting Revelle's research interests and collaborations with colleagues. Subjects of note include climate change, oceanography, UC San Diego history, earth sustainability, population studies, agriculture and technology in developing countries, and world hunger. The collection is arranged in three major accessions. The first portion of the collection was transferred to the SIO Archives in 1983, where it was processed and given the collection number MC 6. The second part of the collection was transferred to the SIO Archives in 1991, where it was processed and given the collection number MC 6A. The third portion of the collection was processed in 2015, and it includes materials donated to the SIO Archives in 2009 and 2011.
Accessions Processed in 1985 (MC 6)
Arranged in eleven series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS, 4) HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 5) NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 6) CONFERENCES, 7) NOTES, 8) SUBJECT FILES, 9) WRITINGS, 10) SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES and 11) PHOTOGRAPHS AND SLIDES.
Accessions Processed in 1994 (MC 6A)
Arranged in seventeen series: 12) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 13) CORRESPONDENCE, 14) PROFESSIONAL MATERIALS, 15) GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS, 16) AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS), 17) INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC UNIONS (ICSU), 18) NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 19) UNITED NATIONS, 20) UC SAN DIEGO, 21) SUBJECT FILES, 22) CONFERENCES, 23) WRITINGS, 24) SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES, 25) INTERVIEWS, 26) PHOTOGRAPHS AND SLIDES, 27) AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL and 28) REALIA.
Accessions Processed in 2015
Arranged in five series: 29) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 30) PROFESSIONAL MATERIALS, 31) SUBJECT FILES, 32) PHOTOGRAPHS AND SLIDES and 33) AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL.
Roger Revelle's papers were donated to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives in twelve separate accessions between 1981 and 2011. In 2013, the SIO Archives merged with Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library. The bulk of the papers had originally been processed in two major groupings in 1983 and 1994, dubbed MC 6 and MC 6A, respectively. After the Library's reorganization, an effort was made to standardize numbering and description for SIO's archival collections. Accordingly, in 2015, MC 6 and 6A were merged to form one collection, SMC 6, though the formerly separate collections are represented as distinct entities within the new finding aid. The overall structure and order of the original processing efforts were preserved, though duplicative materials were removed and writings were consolidated. Additional unprocessed Revelle accessions were also rehoused and cataloged at this time.