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Earth System Science Seminar Series: Dr. Brian Toon, “Earth in Flames: How an asteroid killed the dinosaurs and how we can avoid a similar fate from Nuclear Winter”
April 17 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
SEMINAR SERIES
April 17, 2025
12:00 – 1:00 PM
ChEM-H Neuro, Room E241
Brian Toon, Ph.D.
Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Research Associate in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
University of Colorado Boulder
“Earth in Flames: How an asteroid killed the dinosaurs and how we can avoid a similar fate from Nuclear Winter”
Sixty-six million years ago a mountain sized chunk of rock, traveling at more than 10 times the velocity of the fastest rifle bullet, slammed into the shallow sea covering what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Shortly thereafter the 5th of the Earth’s great mass extinctions occurred due to global fires started by the infalling debris from the impact. Many of the same phenomena that killed the dinosaurs may occur if there is a nuclear war. Here I describe how the dinosaurs died, and the possible consequences of small and large nuclear wars. Unfortunately, at present, we are not capable of stopping an asteroid from hitting the planet. It remains to be seen if we can prevent a nuclear conflict.
Biography
Owen Brian Toon is a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a Research Associate in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was the founding Chair of the Department, which led CU to be ranked as the leading university for atmospheric science in the world in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He received an A. B. in physics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1969 and a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University in 1975, where he studied with Carl Sagan. He was a Research Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center from 1975 until 1997 when he moved to the University of Colorado.
Brian’s research group studies radiative transfer, aerosol and cloud physics, atmospheric chemistry and parallels between the Earth and planets. Brian has helped conceive, develop and lead ten NASA airborne field missions aimed at understanding stratospheric volcanic clouds, stratospheric ozone loss, the effects of aircraft on the atmosphere, and the role of clouds in Earth’s climate system. He has been involved in numerous satellite missions for both Earth and the planets.
Brian has published more than 380 papers in refereed scientific journals. He received NASA’s 1983 and 1989 medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement for studies of the climates of Earth and the planets, and of the ozone hole. He and his colleagues won the American Physical Society’s 1985 Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest for their work on nuclear winter. He was recognized by the United Nations Environmental Program in 2007 for contributions to the Nobel Peace Prize winning IPCC reports. In 2011 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Roger Revelle Medal. In 2014 he received the American Meteorological Society’s Carl-Gustaf Rossby Medal “for fundamental contributions toward understanding the role of clouds and aerosols in the climates of Earth and other planets”.
TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7hOpT0lPGI