CU chemist wins top honor
University of Colorado at Boulder chemistry and biochemistry Professor Margaret Tolbert has been awarded the American Chemical Society’s Creative Advances in Environmental Sciences and Technology Award for her groundbreaking research in atmospheric chemistry.
Tolbert, also a fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, has published a number of scientific articles during her career that have had a major influence on the field of atmospheric chemistry, including contributions to the understanding of the chemistry and climate of Earth. Tolbert is best known for her research on polar stratospheric clouds, or PSCs, which form 10 to 15 miles above Earth’s poles each winter and provide surfaces where chemical reactions linked to stratospheric ozone destruction occur.
In 2004 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences for her work on PSCs and sulfuric acid aerosols and their implications for the Antarctic ozone hole. In 1987, Tolbert received the Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her work linking chemical reactions on the surfaces of PSCs to the formation and activity of ozone-gobbling chlorine molecules in the atmosphere.
In 2007 Tolbert received the Hazel Barnes Prize, the highest faculty recognition for teaching and research given by CU-Boulder, for her contributions to the chemistry and climate of planetary atmospheres, as well as research and teaching efforts involving undergraduates and graduate students.
Her other honors and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, NASA Group Achievement Awards in both 2003 and 2001 and the Boulder Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarly and Creative Work in 2001. Tolbert, 51, also won a national Camille Dreyfuss Teacher-Scholar Award in 1994 and the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union in 1993.
Tolbert will present the award address to the Division of Physical Chemistry at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society to be held in Washington, D.C., Aug. 16-20. CIRES is a joint research venture between CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
CU Office of News Services
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