Richard Lindzen

Richard S. Lindzen is an atmospheric physicist known for contributions to the understanding of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides, and ozone photochemistry. Lindzen earned a Bachelor of Arts in physics, a Master of Science in applied mathematics, and a doctorate in applied mathematics from Harvard University, where his doctoral research contributed to advancements in atmospheric science. He served as the Gordon McKay Professor of Dynamic Meteorology at Harvard University and later as the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lindzen has published nearly 250 scientific papers on topics including the greenhouse effect, climate change, dynamic meteorology, hydrodynamic instability, planetary waves, monsoon meteorology, and planetary atmospheres. His research has addressed the role of the tropics in mid-latitude weather, global heat transport, the moisture budget in global change, the origins of ice ages, seasonal atmospheric transport, stratospheric waves, and climate sensitivity. Lindzen developed theories on the Hadley circulation, hydrodynamic instabilities, internal gravity waves, and atmospheric tides. He served as a lead author of Chapter 7, "Physical Climate Processes and Feedbacks," of the IPCC Third Assessment Report on climate change.

Lindzen has received the American Meteorological Society's Meisinger and Charney Awards, the American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Medal, and the Leo Huss Walin Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Meteorological Society. Lindzen has served as a consultant to the Global Modeling and Simulation Group at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and as a visiting scientist at the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Lindzen has participated in public discourse on climate science, arguing that the climate system may be less sensitive to greenhouse gases than some models suggest. He has presented his views in congressional testimony, international advisory forums, and media appearances. Lindzen has appeared in documentary films including "Cool It" and "Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth)." He has held visiting professorships at Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Laboratory for Dynamic Meteorology in Paris.