21 Facts About Roger Revelle

Roger Randall Dougan Revelle was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global warming, as well as the movement of Earth's tectonic plates.

Roger Revelle was born in Seattle to William Roger Revelle and Ella Dougan.

Roger Revelle was director of SIO from 1950 to 1964.

Roger Revelle stood against the UC faculty being required to take an anti-communist oath during the Joseph McCarthy period.

Roger Revelle served as Science Advisor to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall during the Kennedy Administration in the early 1960s and was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Roger Revelle was deeply involved in the growth of oceanography in the United States and internationally after World War II.

Roger Revelle promoted the idea that the Navy ought to support "basic research" instead of only trying to build new technology.

Roger Revelle was one of the committee chairmen in the influential National Academy of Sciences studies of the biological effects of atomic radiation, the results of which were published in 1956.

Roger Revelle became the first president of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, an international group of scientists devoted to advising on international projects, and was a frequent adviser to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, created in 1960.

Roger Revelle was instrumental in creating the International Geophysical Year in 1958 and was founding chairman of the first Committee on Climate Change and the Ocean under the Scientific Committee on Ocean Research and the International Oceanic Commission.

Roger Revelle told journalists about the issues and testified to Congress that "The Earth itself is a space ship", endangered by rising seas and desertification.

Roger Revelle and Suess described the "buffer factor", now known as the "Roger Revelle factor", which is a resistance to atmospheric carbon dioxide being absorbed by the ocean surface layer posed by bicarbonate chemistry.

Roger Revelle had to contend with the UC Board of Regents, who would have preferred merely to expand the University of California, Los Angeles campus rather than create an entirely new campus in San Diego.

Roger Revelle came into conflict with San Diego politicians and businessmen who believed that the campus should be established closer to downtown, such as near San Diego State University or in Balboa Park.

UC President Clark Kerr realized that Roger Revelle was not a viable candidate to serve as the first chancellor of the new campus, and delivered the news to a "heartbroken" Roger Revelle.

Roger Revelle left Scripps in 1963 and founded the Center for Population Studies at Harvard University.

In 2006, prompted by Robert Balling and others continuing to state that Roger Revelle actually wrote the article, Lancaster formally withdrew his retraction and reiterated his charges.

Al Gore have seized these words to suggest that Roger Revelle, who was Gore's professor and mentor, renounced his belief in global warming.

Roger Revelle agreed with the adage "look before you leap", but he never said "sit on your hands".

Roger Revelle died in San Diego on July 15,1991, from complications of cardiac arrest.

Roger Revelle was survived by his wife, Ellen Clark Revelle, three daughters, Anne Shumway, Mary Paci, and Carolyn Revelle, and one son, William, as well as numerous grandchildren.