The Dutch Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen (87) has passed away. His family has confirmed this to the NOS. He died in Germany in the presence of his immediate family.
Crutzen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for his research into the destruction of the ozone layer by CFCs. He shared the prize with the Mexican Mario Molina and the American Frank Sherwood Rowland.
Crutzen was born in Amsterdam in 1933. After high school and mts he worked for the municipality of Amsterdam. In 1958 he moved to Sweden, where he became a computer programmer at Stockholm University. He also went to study there. In 1973 he obtained his doctorate in meteorology. He then worked and taught in the US, the UK and Germany.
In the 1960s and 1970s he researched the influence of nitrogen oxides on the ozone layer. This is a layer in the atmosphere that protects life on earth against ultraviolet radiation from the sun, among other things.
In 1974, he, Molina, and Rowland predicted that the ozone layer would decline significantly within a few decades under the influence of the human-developed CFCs. The proof of this was provided in the 1980s. Worldwide, the use of CFCs in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosols was prohibited.
Over the years, nineteen Dutch people were awarded a Nobel Prize.
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