Syukuro Manabe

The 1998 Milutin Milanković Medal is awarded to Syukuro Manabe for his studies of climate change and development of prediction techniques using numerical models.

In the sixties in Princeton, Suki Manabe was involved in the development of one of the earliest General Circulation Models. He was the first to include many basic concepts such as radiative-convective equilibrium, adiabatic adjustment, and cloud feedbacks. Professor Manabe was then the first to develop (with Kirk Bryan) coupled ocean/atmosphere models and they were the first to demonstrate, using a realistic climate model, that the sensitivity of the thermohaline circulation to the fresh water flux was a process of utmost importance. Professor Manabe went back to Japan last year to lead an extremely ambitious project on Global Climate Change. He is a worthy recipient of the EGS Milutin Milankovic Medal for Climate Research for his understanding and prediction of climate change using numerical methods.

Newsletter 67, 38, 1998